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IZENSHIP 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Cliap"^y.. Copyright M.\^2£ 
Shelf.Wi 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Our Workers* Library. 

Helpful Books for Christian Workers. 

Price 35 cents each, postpaid. 



Social Evenings* Amos R. Wells. 

A Book of Games and Pleasant Entertainments. 

Social to Save* Amos R. Wells. 

Entertainments for the Home Circle and the Society. 

Fuel for Missionary Fires* Belle M. Brain. 

Some Programmes and Plans for Societies and Mis- 
sionary Concerts. 

Weapons for Temperance Warfare* Belle 
M. Brain. 

Some Plans and Programmes for Societies and Chris- 
tian Temperance Unions. 

Prayer-Meeting Methods* Amos R. Wells. 

A Book of Plans for Young People's Religious Gath- 
erings. 

Our Unions* Amos R. Wells. 

% Methods for Endeavor Unions and Conventions. 

iflfet Steps* W. F. McCauley. 

An Advance Text-book in Christian Endeavor. 

Citizens in Training* Amos R. Wells 

A Manual of Christian Citizenship. 



Sent postpaid upon receipt of price. 



Winiitti .Societg of Cfjrtstian !Entieabor, 

BOSTON AND CHICAGO. 



Citizens in Training. 



A MANUAL OF CHRISTIAN 
CITIZENSHIP, 



BY 



AMOS R. WELLS, 

AUTHOR OF ** ELIJAH TONE, CITIZEN," ETC. 




UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 
BOSTON AND CHICAGO 






Copyright, 1898, 

BY THE 

United Society of Christian Endeavor. 



All rights reserved. 



1 1 275 




TWOCOPI 



?>^A^^ 



c. J. peters & SON, typographers, 

BOSTON. 

i^Iimpton Press 



H. M. PLIMPTON <fc CO., PRINTERS & BINDERS, 
NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTBR PAGE 

I. Christian Endeavor Training Citizens. . 5 

II. Christian-Citizenship Classes 17 

III. A Word About Petitions 29 

IV. Reform Campaigns 35 

V. Christian-Citizenship Meetings 44 

VI. Temperance Meetings 61 

VII. Christian Citizenship on Holidays ... 69 

VIII. The Rescue of the Fourth 74 

IX. The Citizen Reaching Down 80 

X. For Sabbath Observance 86 

XI. Some Christian-Citizenship Crusades . . 92 

XII. A Budget of Plans and Suggestions. . . 97 

3 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 



CHAPTER I. 

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR TRAINING CITIZENS. 

The millions of Christian Endeavorers in the world 
are in dead earnest — in live earnest, rather — on the 
great question of Christian citizenship. They are de- 
termined that saloon-keepers, the illiterate, the crimi- 
nal, the corrupt and corrupting ward politician, shall 
no longer rule our fair cities or dominate our mighty 
nations. Scores of campaigns for the betterment of 
city life, through the reform of political abuses or the 
reform of individual men, have been carried on dur- 
ing the past few years by our ardent Endeavorers. 

And yet only a beginning has been made. The 
government of America's cities is America's shame. 
If our great municipalities are to be redeemed within 
a generation from the foul hands into which they have 
fallen, the work must be done by the present Chris- 
tian Endeavor host and their friends. 

Who will pretend to say that conscience has any- 
thing to do with the politics of any of our great cities? 
Who will assert that the better elements are not cowed 
and held down and their influence reduced to nil by 
5 



6 CITIZENS IX TRAINING. 

the lower elements ? Were Alexander Hamilton alive, 
could he be elected mayor of New York ; or Benjamin 
Franklin, of Boston ; or William Penn, of Philadel- 
phia? Are municipal affairs managed by the men 
most competent to manage them? The question, in 
its simple innocency, provokes a smile. As our cities 
have grown in greatness have their offices grown in 
honor? Has their political machinery improved and 
strengthened as more difficult work has been pre- 
sented for it to do? In short, to sum up the entire 
arraignment, if an honest, clean. Christian young man 
w^ere choosing a life-w'ork, is not city politics posi- 
tively the last occupation he would consider? 
^ *' O, you would bring Christian Endeavor into poli- 
■' tics I " some one quavers. Yes, we would ; into 
politics, but not into partisanship. Politics means, 
literally, the skilled management of a city, State, or 
nation. Outside of the Christian ministry, there is 
no occupation inherently more honorable and digni- 
fied and glorious than this of managing cities, States, 
and nations. In no way, not even in the pulpit, can 
the influence of a good and able man be exerted more 
powerfully than as mayor or alderman of a great city, 
legislator or governor of a commonwealth, or con- 
gressman or president of the nation. But we have 
driven our true leaders to become editors of daily 
papers, heads of reform societies, presidents of uni- 
versities, or managers of vast, but private, business 
affairs. 

It will be a sad day for Christian Endeavor when 
she mixes in party politics. May that day never 



CITIZENS IX TRAINING. ^ 

come. But the greatest bane of municipal govern- 
ment just now is that the national parties, formed 
along the lines of national issues that have as much 
to do with city issues as the eagle with the whale, 
yet have assumed to themselves the rule of our cities. 
Good citizens of all parties can combine in the inter- 
est of good city government without for a moment 
losing their loyalty to their national parties, for those 
parties have no vital or just connection whatever with 
our cities. 

There came one week from Philadelphia to Boston 
a body of pilgrims. There were fifty of them, and 
they were fittingly received in the Old South Meet- 
ing House, for they came to review the old landmarks 
of that old town, to see just where the massacre took 
place, and the tea went overboard, and the lanterns 
flashed from the belfry, and the boys slid down hill. 
As I listened to Mr. Mead and Dr. Hale and Colonel 
Higginson and Lieutenant-Governor Wolcott and 
Hezekiah Butterworth exploiting before that throng 
of historical pilgrims from the Quaker City the glory 
of Boston's past, I wondered if a pilgrimage would be 
made, a century hence, from anywhere, to note the 
memories of the great cities of to-day. 

Towns are made great, not by vast buildings or 
elevated roads or well-stuffed banks or marble pal- 
aces, but by the great ideas that find expression in 
municipal life. You young men that read this can, 
if you will, add this decade a chapter to the history 
of your city as glorious as Boston's revolutionary 
decade. There yet remains many a revolution to 



8 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

accomplish. Make your city — if you are in a me- 
tropolis — the first great city in the United States to 
adopt prohibition! You can do it. Throw all the 
rum into the nearest pond. That will be better than 
throwing the tea into Boston harbor, and will break 
the power of a worse tyrant than King George. 

Make your city the first great city in the United 
States to establish the rights of minorities. Abolish 
the iniquitous and unjust ward system, whereby, if 
the lower element is in the majority in three-fourths 
of the wards of a city, it is impossible for that city 
to have a good government, even though the total 
vote of good citizens outbalance in the aggregate 
the total vote of the bad. Make it possible for the 
best citizens, from all over the city, to cast their vote 
for and elect a man w^orthy to represent them. Why 
should the votes of all the good men in my ward be 
rendered ineffective because there happen to be in the 
ward ten more bad men than good ? 

Make your city the first great city in the United 
States to break away, definitely and decidedly, from 
national party lines, and to divide its citizens into 
parties based solely, as they should be based, on mu- 
nicipal issues. In short, make your city stand for 
living issues, great ideas, and the manly embodiment 
of them. Thus you will catch up and carry on the 
Christian Endeavor w^atchword, " Christian citizen- 
ship ! '' 

I call it a Christian Endeavor watchword, because 
Christian Endeavor is training the model citizen of 
the future. Better than that, Christian Endeavor is 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 9 

training the mothers of the model citizens that are 
to come. Let me point out four ways in which it is 
doing this. 

In the first place, it is training young men and 
women in fidelity. No one can faithfully keep the 
Christian Endeavor pledge without becoming in po- 
litical matters more faithful to his duty. 

Citizens in Love with Duty. 

That great word — duty ; how I long to see it bla- 
zoned on the banners of all political parties, far above 
the tariff question, the silver question, and all other 
questions whatever ! Citizens in love with duty, — 
that is what the nation needs ; and to buy them she 
could afford to lose many cities. Citizens in love 
with duty, — that is what Christian Endeavor more 
and more is giving to the nation. 

Christian Endeavor business men, whose ledgers 
will stand the audit of the recording angel. Christian 
Endeavor editors, whose leaders are not led by the 
advertising department. Christian Endeavor voters, 
who convert to truth that shallow pretext of the Ori- 
ent, and make of their ballots veritable prayer papers. 

Christian Endeavor policemen, that do not keep 
one eye fiercely on the front door of the saloon while 
the other winks at the side door. Christian Endeavor 
laborers, that would rather work overtime than un- 
dertime, and prefer to receive small wages rather 
than wages not fully earned. Christian Endeavor 
employers, who recognize a brother in their humblest 



lO CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

servant, and hold themselves to be the^r brothers' 
keepers. 

Christian Endeavor councilmen, that do not walk 
in the counsel of the ungodly. Christian Endeavor 
aldermen, that cannot be called paltermen. Christian 
Endeavor mayors, that do not with one hand hold ma- 
jestically in front of them their staff of office, while 
the other hand is held out behind them for bribes. 

Christian Endeavor legislators, whose bills are not 
influenced by a certain other kind of bills. Chris- 
tian Endeavor governors, that do not confuse the ris- 
ing sun on their State shield with the glimmer of the 
almighty dollar. 

Citizens in love with duty, faithful citizens, coura- 
geous citizens, — these Christian Endeavor is giving 
to the nation, through its allegiance to its dutiful 
pledge, through its uncompromising and vigorous 
training in fidelity. 

Citizens with Ideals. 

In the second place, the Christian Endeavor move- 
ment is giving to our beloved nation citizens that are 
loyal to ideals. Our Society teaches love for ideals. 
No one has seen the church — that great church 
whose name we blazon on our banners — '* For 
Christ and the Church '' ; yet to the eager eyes of 
these thousands of Endeavorers the Church is a 
splendid, visible reality. From loyalty to this unseen 
Church it is easy to pass to loyalty to an unseen po- 
litical entity, a State. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. II 

The surveyor knows that the more ideal the point 
toward which he sights, the truer will be the line he 
draws. If he sights at a tree, his mistakes will be 
more mischievous than if he sights at a distant moun- 
tain top. If he sights a star, his aim will be truer 
still, and truest of all if he sights the unseen pole. 
Our Christian Endeavor pledge, while it turns steady 
gaze on things near at hand and definite, sights 
boldly along the line of high ideals. 

It regards the local church, which we promise to 
support in every way. It regards also the universal 
.hurch. It requires the specific daily prayer and 
Bible-reading, but also aims at the ideal, '' whatever 
He would like to have me do,*' and " throughout my 
whole life.'' 

So also the citizen that Christian Endeavor con- 
tributes to this nation w^ll regard his practical, im- 
mediate, and definite duties to the state, such as 
voting, reading the newspaper, visiting the schools, 
investigating the characters of candidates ; but he 
will also give zealous attention to building up the 
ideal commonwealth, making his State and nation the 
noblest possible instructor of the ignorant, supporter 
of the weak, director of the wandering, and rewarder 
of the strong. He will be a practical citizen, and 
for that very reason he will be all the more an ideal 
citizen. 

He will not rest satisfied, in political any more than 
in religious matters, wnth the faithless cry, '' Let well 
enough alone." Always before his eyes will swim 
the vision of the best. Always in his ears will ring 



12 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

Christ's urgings toward the perfect. He will not let 
affairs take their course. He will not yield to sloth 
or cowardice or failure. He will have been taught in 
his Christian Endeavor training-school to pursue with 
vehement insistence the ideal, and to rest satisfied 
with nothing less. 

Citizens that Pull Together. 

In the third place, Christian Endeavor is bestowing 
upon this nation a blessing not commonly recognized ; 
it is giving her a set of citizens that know how to 
co-operate, for common ends, with men of different 
views. 

It has become notorious that, while parties appear 
to progress, the state seldom progresses with them. 
While the Democrats are hitched to the front of the 
car of state, the Republicans are hitched on behind, 
pulling in the opposite direction with equal strength. 
The next election may reverse the relative positions, 
the Republicans proudly stepping to the front and the 
Democrats sullenly hitching on the rear, but the 
wagon goes not a step farther for the change. Some- 
times there are four parties, one attached to each cor- 
ner, and then the car is almost torn to pieces among 
them. 

Now Christian Endeavor would hitch the parties 
tandem. That is the Christian Endeavor way. In 
every deed there must be a leader. Christian En- 
deavor believes in leaders. But it also believes in 
co-operation, in pulling in the same direction. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 13 

In a Christian Endeavor union the president may 
be a Presbyterian, but all the other denominations 
hold up his hands. The largest society may be a 
Baptist one, but the other societies are not striving 
to draw away its members. When a Congregational- 
ist proposes to the union a plan of work, the union 
does not reject it because a Congregationalist pro- 
posed it. 

This co-operation does not mean that Baptists are 
coming to believe with the Congregationalists or 
either with the Presbyterians. They are not. But 
it does mean that all are believing most profoundly 
and zealously in Christ's one church, and eager to 
promote its interests first, their own interests second. 

Such partisans in affairs of state Christian En- 
deavor is developing, — men able to see beyond the 
machine, the party, the platform, the offices, the ma- 
jority of the moment, and willing to subordinate these 
at any time to the good of the state. Thoroughly 
believing in their own party and its principles, they 
are not so cynical or egotistical as to believe tha^ all 
wisdom and patriotism lie within their party lines. 
They gladly recognize the good of their opponents, 
applaud their noble utterances, honor their worthy 
men, and even generously and patriotically assist 
them in their plans, whenever the people have placed 
their opponents in control. 

It is the tandem principle. Under Christian En- 
deavor politics the state would move forward. 



14 CITIZENS IN TRAINING* 



Skilled Citizens. 



And fourthly, and finally, — though the theme is 
only entered upon, — one of the results of Christian 
Endeavor methods of work is the rearing of citizens 
trained to systematic and businesslike methods in 
the management of municipality and State — yes, 
and nation. 

Much of current politics reminds me of a kind of 
band they have in Russia, as I have read. Each 
member of the band has a horn, which can give out 
only one note. If he is set to G, he can toot only 
when G comes in the course of the music. Most of 
his time he spends waiting for his turn to toot G. 

Thus with our politics and politicians, — and we 
should all be politicians, taking the word in the old 
Greek sense of a citizen skilled in citizenship. A set 
of men is installed in the offices. They are police- 
men, postmasters, aldermen, mayors, legislators. It 
is their turn to toot G. '* Turn the rascals out ! " is 
speedily the cry, and presto ! we have an entirely new 
set of officers, all tooting A. Thus, in swift succes- 
sion, sound out the notes of our national anthem, 
whose words, being interpreted, virtually are, *^ Turn 
the rascals out, and let us toot." 

No>v Christian Endeavor does not play after the 
fashion of these Russian bands. It does not believe 
in this root-and-branch rotation in office. Its belief 
is expressed in the common Christian Endeavor for- 
mula : "A committee for every member, and every 
member on a committee." **A11 at it and always at 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 15 

it," full orchestra fashion, — that is what Christian 
Endeavor substitutes for the musical spasms of the 
Russian band. 

Christian Endeavor believes in division of labor, 
but not in rotation of labor. There is in its work- 
shop a place for each, a task for each. 

To go back to our musical simile, in its symphony 
of labor is a drum, — the social committee, that drums 
them up. There is a flute, a heaven-soaring flute, 
the prayer-meeting committee. There is a merry 
violin, the social committee, — a violin that sets 
hands rather than feet to wagging. There is the 
clarion call of the cornet, the missionary committee. 
All at it, and always at it, and at it all together, — 
thus goes the symphony of Christian Endeavor. 

Now this spirit, applied to the making of a state, 
is giving to our country citizens constantly and defi- 
nitely at work for the public welfare. If on no other 
committee, they are on the committee of one, or the 
** whatsoever " committee. When they see a thing 
that needs doing, they do it, or see that it is done. 
They do not lazily and faithlessly delegate their citi- 
zenship to their rulers when they delegate to them 
authority to make laws. 

Every Endeavorer has some little thing which he 
proudly does, regularly and carefully, for his society. 
It may be only to pass the singing-books or post the 
subject of the meeting on some bulletin board ; what- 
ever it is, his pledge holds him nobly faithful to it. 
Every Christian Endeavor citizen will also find his 
task for the nation of his love. It may be a slight 



l6 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

one, and he may not readily find it, but he will find 
it, and will not be satisfied until he is expressing his 
love for his country, and paying his debt to her, by 
some sort of undelegated service. 

The state cried : '* Give me men, and the mothers 
of men. Men who know their rights and dare main- 
tain them. Men who know their duties, too, and 
are swift to do them. Men of far-seeing eyes. Men 
of generous, ready hands. Give me men, and the 
mothers of men." 

The merchant gave the state money, but that was 
not men. The farmer gave her grain. The manu- 
facturer gave her goods of iron and wool. The quarry- 
man gave her stone. None of these were men. 

The legislator gave her laws. The teacher gave 
her formulas. The writer gave her paper, black and 
white. Still the state cried: " I ask for bread, and 
you give me stones. I need men — men, and the 
mothers of men." 

And to the state Christian Endeavor made answer : 
*' Here, my beautiful nation, here I bring you men, 
and the mothers of men. Men of faith, and hope, 
and love. Men of courage and steadfastness. Men 
who honor their word, and honor God, and love their 
fellows, and wish to serve the world. I give you 
men," cried Christian Endeavor to the state, *' men, 
and the mothers of men." 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 17 



CHAPTER IL 

CHRISTIAN-CITIZENSHIP CLASSES. 

Ignorant effort accomplishes little in any un- 
dertaking. Before our Endeavorers can do much 
along Christian-citizenship lines, they must study 
the problems of modern citizenship. This study, 
too, is the most appropriate work for young people, 
— far more fitting, in the majority of cases, than re- 
form campaigns or the purifying of political parties. 
In this chapter I wish to give an outline of a course 
of studies in Christian citizenship that may be made 
long or short, light or heavy, complete or fragmen- 
tary, according to the age, time, interest, and facili- 
ties of the society. If you enter upon it with zeal 
and wisdom, I am not afraid that you will not carry 
it on to a triumphant issue, not only in better in- 
formed citizens, but in some greatly needed concrete 
reforms. 

First, as to the persons that will form the class. 
I strongly advise you, if your town or community 
is a small one, to join together in these Christian- 
citizenship studies all the Endeavorers of the place. 
You will gain the enthusiasm of numbers and the 
stimulus of one another^s zeal, in addition to the 
great advantage of putting in a common stock the 



l8 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

information each possesses already. Be strict in 
requiring attendance. Make it a privilege to join. 
Permit friends to be brought, but limit the number 
each member may bring. You do not want so large 
numbers as to quench the spirit of ready discussion. 
Moreover, the character of the v^^ork is degraded by 
the admission of many that do not ** mean business." 

Make it a point always to meet at the same time 
and place. Do not permit other interests to turn 
this aside. Advertise the class widely, and let en- 
tertainments avoid your evening, if they wish your 
patronage. Enter upon this work with the determi- 
nation to place it first in your thoughts and plans, as 
its importance well deserves. 

You will need a little organization. There must be 
a president to keep the meeting running on schedule 
time, and to preside over the discussions. There 
should be a secretary to keep the names and record 
of attendance, etc. A treasurer will be needed, to 
buy and sell the books you will study, if for no other 
purpose. You will find it advantageous to elect a 
librarian, to aid your members in hunting up books 
and articles on the subjects for investigation in the 
public library and elsewhere. - You must have a pro- 
gramme committee, to obtain speakers and fix upon 
topics ; and you will need, for the most thorough 
work, an examination committee, who will prepare a 
set of questions on each branch of the study — ques- 
tions that will not need many words for their answer, 
but yet will cover the ground fairly ; and this com- 
mittee will read and grade the papers handed in. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. I9 

The officers first named might well serve as pro- 
gramme and examination committees also, unless 
you have at your disposal a large union, and wish to 
interest many in the work. 

Choose some text-book for systematic work, and 
get each member of the class to buy a copy, unless 
some prefer to own the book in partnership. 

The best manual for your purpose will probably be 
** Christian Citizenship," by Carlos Martyn, D.D., 
sold by the United Society of Christian Endeavor 
for 75 cents. The programme committee will fix 
upon a certain number of pages to be read in prep- 
aration for each meeting. These are not to be read 
at the meeting, but at the homes, and part of the 
questions of the evening's examination are to be a 
test of this home study, the rest of the examination 
having to do with the class discussions proper. 

Here is a suggested order of exercises for a meet- 
ing of the class : — 

Opening devotional exercises. 

Questions and discussion related to the section of the 

text-book for the evening. 
Brief written examination upon the text-book and upon 

the points brought out by the speaker of the preceding 

week. 
Address of the evening. 
The speaker questioned by the members, A general 

discussion of the evening's topic. 
Reports of special committees of investigation. 
Announcement of the work next to be taken up. 
Closing exercises. 



20 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

The most important part of the preparation for 
a meeting is the obtaining of a speaker. It is not a 
good plan to allow one man to conduct all the con- 
ferences. No single man is at all likely to have the 
varied and vast stores of knowledge you will need. 
Seek out for each topic some practical man or woman 
— not necessarily a fine speaker — whose actual work 
has brought him the information you desire. Make 
everything bend to getting the right speaker. Do 
not hesitate to change the order in which the topics 
will be taken up, if by such a change you can obtain 
the best speakers. If you err in your choice, and are 
disappointed in the treatment of any subject, take it up 
again later on, with another man to treat it. Search 
a wide field for these speakers. Go into the next 
town, into neighboring counties, and into the near-by 
States, if your means or influence extend that far. 

And what topics shall you take up? I do not pro- 
pose to lay down a scheme of study. Conditions are 
so different, — some that will use this manual being 
in the country districts and some in the large cities, 
and all facing their peculiar and individual local prob- 
lems, — that to attempt to define one course for all 
would be absurd. My advice is that, in any case, 
you begin with the topic uppermost in public interest, 
whatevel it may be. If you have been having trouble 
about your streets, study them ; if in the schools, 
investigate the public-school system. Branch out 
as your inter-est leads you. That is the secret of re- 
membering what you study, and the secret also of 
winning popular interest to your class. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 21 

Let me illustrate by a list of subjects what you may 
study, with suggestions as to speakers : — 

1. The public-school system. [Its history. The 
school board. The training of teachers. Teachers' 
examinations. How teachers are chosen. Teachers' 
pay. School discipline. The choice of text-books. 
School sanitation. The promotion of scholars. Tru- 
ant laws.] This is a most interesting and important 
subject. It may well occupy several meetings, and 
be treated by several men ; for instance, some mem- 
ber of the board of county examiners, the school 
superintendent, one of the local school board. 

2. The streets and country roads. [How a new 
road is laid out. How roads are kept in repair. 
How roads are paid for. The work of the street 
commissioner. Paving. Side-walks. The lighting 
of streets. Street franchises. The importance of 
better roads.] Here is another subject whose im- 
portance is fundamental, though it is not often un- 
derstood to be so. Get some street commissioner to 
deal with it, and quiz him well. An old bicycle-rider 
will speak feelingly on the subject. So will a farmer. 

3. The temperance laws. [Local ordinances. 
State laws. How saloons are licensed. The super- 
vision of saloons. The number of saloons in the 
town. Probable expense caused by the saloon. New 
temperance legislation possible. Temperance educa- 
tion in the schools.] This topic should be treated 
by some well-informed temperance worker, preferably, 
of course, some lawyer. Make a map showing the loca- 
tion of all the saloons, churches, and school-houses. 



22 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

4. The building laws. [Tenements and their 
condition. The crowding of population into the 
cities. Condemnation of buildings. Height of build- 
ings. Inspection of buildings.] Obtain for this talk 
some architect or some building commissioner. 

5. The fire department. [How it is manned. 
The engines and other equipment. The water supply 
available. Insurance rates. Selection and training 
of firemen. Improvement in this service.] By some 
fireman or some commissioner of this department. 

6. The police department. [How policemen are 
chosen. What discipline they are under. Their 
temptations. The dangers they are exposed to. 
Changes needed in the force. The swearing in of 
deputies. Services policemen may be called upon to 
render. The board of police commissioners.] This 
talk may be given by a police officer, or by one of 
the commissioners. 

7. The public charities. [The laws relating to 
paupers. The poor-house and the poor-farm. Pin- 
gree *' potato farms." The causes of poverty.] The 
superintendent of the county poor-house may give 
this talk, or one of the county trustees. 

8. The prisons. [The number of inmates. Rou- 
tine of prison life. Punishments in prison. Liber- 
ties given the prisoners. Reformatories and their 
work. How the prison officials are appointed and 
paid. Changes desirable in the prisons. Work that 
Endeavorers might do there.] Some prison author- 
ity might be invited to give this talk, — the warden 
or the chaplain. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 23 

9. The courts. [The different kinds. Appeals 
from one to another. Judges, and how they are 
chosen. The duties of the clerk of court, of the 
sheriff, and other court officers. Who can practise 
at the bar. Legal abuses that need correcting. The 
jury system. The probate court. How to make a 
will. The police court. How to procure arrests. 
The grand jury and its work.] Of course this theme 
has almost infinite ramifications, and much judgment 
will be needed in selecting only the most practically 
important topics. Get some wide-awake lawyer to 
give this talk, and extend it to cover several sessions. 

10. Elections. [Different kinds. When held. 
Registration. Residence required. Naturalization. 
Preparation of ballots. Oversight of the polls. 
Counting of votes. The report of the judges. The 
Australian ballot and similar reforms. Contested 
elections. Defrauding of ballot boxes. Changes 
that should be made in the suffrage.] Some one 
that has often served as judge of elections would be 
likely to talk to you helpfully on this important topic. 

11. The organization of parties. [The caucus. 
The primary. The ''machine." The political con- 
vention. Parties vs. independent action. How to 
gain influence in a party. How nominees are made. 
How a platform is prepared. Campaign expenses, 
and how they are met. National parties in local pol- 
itics.] Get a politician to treat this subject. Better, 
get several politicians, one from each party ; thus you 
will gain an insight into different methods, and 

^you will see the matter from different points of view\ 



24 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

12. The State legislature. [Electoral districts. 
Names of your own representatives. When elections 
are held. How laws are made. Petitions. How to 
influence legislation. The initiative and referendum. 
The officers of the legislature. The payment of legis- 
lators. Their character. The governor and his du- 
ties. How the legislature gets through its work.] 
It goes without saying that a legislator himself would 
be the best person, probably, for this talk ; though 
doubtless if you can obtain a newspaper correspon- 
dent of long experience, he would be quite as help- 
ful, and even more entertaining. Several evenings 
could be devoted to this theme. 

13. The city and county organizations. [The 
city charter. The city council. The mayor and his 
work. Aldermen : how elected, how paid, what they 
do. How an ordinance is passed. The county or- 
ganization. What activities belong to the county, 
in distinction from the city.] The mayor, or one of 
the councilmen or aldermen, or some county officer, 
would be the best speaker on this subject. 

14. Our post-offices. [Different classes of offices. 
How the postmasters are appointed. Their pay. 
Checks upon them. The importance of their work. 
How the public may aid the postmaster. Some 
needed postal reforms. Use of the mails for im- 
proper purposes. Evils of the spoils system.] 
Speaker : the postmaster himself. 

15. A free press. [How newspapers are sup- 
ported. The advertising patronage, and the influ- 
ence it exerts. The editors' policy, and how it is 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 25 

determined. How news is gathered. How a sub- 
scriber may help the editor. How we may better 
the tone of the pubHc press. The power of the 
press, and how to enlist it on the side of good. The 
Sunday newspaper. The sensational paper. Use of 
papers by churches.] An editor or a well-informed, 
experienced reporter will be the man for this talk. 

16. Railroads. [The electric road ; its rapid 
progress in favor. The trolley system. The use of 
the streets. Three-cent fares. The influence of 
the electric car on the observance of the Sabbath. 
Steam railways. The effect of the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission. Should railways be owned by 
the people ? Should municipalities own their street- 
car systems?] If you have time, divide this subject 
into two evenings' discussions, getting men inter- 
ested in the two kinds of railroads to treat each his 
specialty. 

17. The water supply. [Reservoirs. Chemical 
examination of the water. The water-tax, and how 
it is adjusted. Penalties for non-payment. The use 
of wells and cisterns. Street sprinkling.] In con- 
nection with this subject, you may well take up simi- 
lar questions regarding the gas supply, and the use 
of electricity. Some water commissioner will prove 
a valuable speaker. 

18. The Sabbath. [Sunday laws. New Sunday 
laws that should be framed. Church attendance. 
The theatre and Sunday. What stores may remain 
open? The Sunday saloon. Why this question 
should interest the general citizen, and especially 



26 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

the workman.] Speaker : any well-informed citizen 
who has this theme on his heart. 

19. Orphans* homes and the like. [This talk 
will include a discussion of lunatic asylums, homes 
for the aged, asylums for idiots, schools for the 
training of the deaf and dumb, and all such institu- 
tions.] If you can get some official from one of these 
establishments to describe its workings, it may serve 
as a sample of them all. 

20. Records. [Where the public records are kept. 
Who is responsible for them. What they include. 
Marriages. Deaths. Mortgages. Deeds. Corpora- 
tions.] The nearest register of deeds would prob- 
ably give you a valuable talk. 

21. The social evil. [How far it is tolerated in 
your town. Is it protected by law? The theatre, the 
gambling hell, the race track, and similar themes may 
be discussed on the same evening.] Attempt to find 
out just how matters stand in your community, both 
as to law and as to fact. 

22. The public health. [The board of health and 
its w^ork. Druggists and their licenses. Who may 
practise as a physician? Sewerage systems. Muni- 
cipal bath-houses. The value of parks. Public play- 
grounds and their usefulness. The examination of 
milk and meat. The functions of the State board of 
health. Regular inspection of homes.] Some physi- 
cian should give this talk, preferably one that is a 
member of the board of health. 

23. The public library. [Growth of public libra- 
ries. How the library is supported. Its officers. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 27 

Who chooses its books. Proper and improper use 
of the library. How to bring about the circulation 
of a better class of books.] Speaker: the librarian, 
or one of his assistants. 

24. Taxes. [Assessments. Who makes them. 
How they are made. Boards of equalization. What 
is exempt from taxation. How the rate of taxation 
is determined. Penalties for non-payment. How 
citizens defraud the government of taxes. Municipal, 
township, county. State, and national taxes.] Best 
speaker : the township or county treasurer, or possi- 
bly one of the local assessors. 

Of course these twenty-four topics will prove sug- 
gestive of a large number of other lines along which 
your studies may branch out. Set no time for the 
completion of your course. Make thorough work as 
far as you go. Determine really to know something 
about the poor-house before you go on to the city 
treasury. 

Follow up each address in some way. The best 
way is to appoint a committee to study into whatever 
special matters connected with the topic may have 
excited interest, as shown in the discussions. For 
example, the talk of the public-school superintendent 
may have led the class to suspect that the best text- 
books, under existing methods, are not chosen for 
your public schools. Appoint a committee to study 
into this question, and to report later to the class. 
If this report has meat in it, get it printed in the local 
papers, and carry it out, or get your elders to carry 
it out, to further results. 



28 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

These reports of special committees, whenever pos- 
sible, should be embodied in careful papers. They 
may sometimes take the place of the evening^s ad- 
dress, and may furnish matter for quite exciting and 
stimulating debates. If you want a vivid and thought- 
inspiring picture of the workings of such committees 
of investigation, read Washington Gladden's ** The 
Cosmopolis City Club," published by the Century 
Co., New York ($i.oo). Such original work will do 
more than anything else to extend the influence of 
the class, and make membership in it a thing to be 
sought after. 

This plan presupposes weekly meetings. If you 
cannot manage that, monthly meetings will be better 
than none at all. The examinations I suggest need 
not be held, though I strongly advise them ; and, in 
short, any feature of the plan may be omitted or 
modified to suit local conditions. It is my decided 
conviction, however, that you will succeed far better 
in the work if you keep the requirements somewhat 
strict than if, for the sake of drawing in large num- 
bers, you drop from the scheme whatever calls for a 
little work. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 29 



CHAPTER III. 
A WORD ABOUT PETITIONS. 

A GENTLEMAN, quite well acquainted with the feel- 
ings and work of legislators, once expressed to me 
his strong opposition to the use of miscellaneously 
signed petitions in an attempt to influence legislation. 
** The law-makers," he asserted, " are disgusted with 
them and pay no attention to them. They are well 
aware how little they signify, that they usually stand 
merely for some officious busybody who has been 
boring his friends, and that the legislators may with 
perfect safety to themselves absolutely disregard such 
impertinent requests. One communication," contin- 
ued this gentleman,*' signed by a few thoughtful men, 
men the legislator knows and has confidence in, will 
outweigh a bushel basketful of ordinary petitions." 

Now that is quite a statement. If it is true, — and 
I fear it is largely true, — then both the people and 
their representatives have been wrong ; the people, 
in not making their signatures to petitions respected, 
and the legislators, in being unwilling to learn the 
will of the people, which, by the very name they have 
assumed, they have agreed to represent. 

The right to petition is solemnly recognized in our 
constitutions. Is it our duty to exercise this right, 



30 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

or is it a folly and an impertinence ? After intrusting 
our affairs to the hands of our law-makers, is it expe- 
dient that we henceforward keep hands off until they 
come around again for our votes ? If anything is to 
be said to them, is it only a few ** thoughtful men" 
that have a right to say it? Then in all logic those 
few *' thoughtful men" should cast the ballot for all 
the rest of us at election time. 

For a distrust of petitions is a distrust of democ- 
racy and a desire for an oligarchy. If the common 
people are to be given the choice of legislators, it is 
folly to deny them the right to influence legislation. 
Indeed, it is already true that the vast bulk of our 
State-house business is based upon petitions. Our 
State legislators go up to their capitols loaded with 
them. The committee on petitions is always busy 
with hearings. Most laws spring from petitions. 
But these are in the lower sphere of dollars and cents. 
They concern bridges to be built, or court-houses to 
be erected, or bonds to be issued. It is when by peti- 
tions men seek to guide legislation in the highest 
matters, in great courses of policy, and especially in 
moral questions, that the petition suddenly becomes 
a nuisance and an impertinence. 

There is no doubt that full many a crank has 
chosen to turn this wheel of our political machinery. 
Certainly there have been myriads of silly and futile 
petitions, narrow, ignorant, and bigoted, signed by 
hundreds of foolish zealots, and signed also by hun- 
dreds of men simply to get rid of bores. And because 
most petitions of this class have dealt with moral 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 3I 

questions, though in a way almost immoral, many 
a legislator has come to throw all but purely busi- 
ness petitions into this class. 

But legislators should discriminate, and we should 
discriminate. Indeed, when the level-headed citi- 
zens begin to discriminate, the legislators will. 
Never sign your name to a trivial petition, nor one 
crudely and foolishly worded. Never sign a petition 
when you are certain your representative will vote 
rightly upon the matter, unless you wish to support 
him in his position, or influence the legislative body 
in general, or show your colors for the good of the 
community at large. Never permit the petition to 
imply distrust of the legislator or of his associates. 
Do not permit this important matter of petitioning 
to get into the hands of ignorant or fanatical men. 
Anticipate them yourself, if need be. Already the 
best of our law-makers admit often that their course 
of action has been changed or modified through hear- 
ing from their constituents. They are glad to know 
their sentiments, and hold it a sacred trust to regard 
them, so far as their own consciences and knowledge 
will allow. Due care in the matter of petitions will 
increase this respect of politicians for their constitu- 
encies, and make more frequent the communication be- 
tween them . Some one has fitly called the petition our 
" post-ofiice referendum," and until our nation has ad- 
vanced as far as Switzerland toward a true democracy, 
we cannot do better than use this irregular mode of 
getting the will of the people accomplished. 

I should be glad to see the Christian-citizenship 



3^ CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

committee in every Christian Endeavor society be- 
come also a petition committee — a committee whose 
duty it would be to keep posted on the great moral 
questions of the day, to learn the proper forms of 
petition, to propose to the society subjects for peti- 
tion when the need arises, and, after the executive 
committee has voted on the matter and the pastor 
given hearty assent, to canvass the society and com- 
munity for signatures. 

I do not suggest, be it observed, that the society 
as a whole vote upon the petition. Such mass peti- 
tions, the expressions of mass meetings, conventions, 
and the like, are of little value in influencing legis- 
lation. They are useful in emergencies, when there 
is no time for more deliberate action, and they are 
useful in arousing public opinion ; but they are far 
inferior to an actual list of names. 

Let the committee be sure that the petition is 
couched in proper terms ; otherwise it will not carry 
much weight, but will appear unbusinesslike and 
crude. The forms of petition are straightforward 
and simple, such as: **To the United States Sen- 
ate : The undersigned hereby petition your honorable 
body to — " ; or: "To the United States House of 
Representatives : The undersigned, members of the 
First Presbyterian Christian Endeavor Society of 
New York City, respectfully petition your honorable 
body to — " ; or: '' To the Massachusetts House of 
Representatives : The undersigned, citizens of voting 
age resident in the City of Newton, hereby petition 
your honorable body that — ." 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 7,^ 

Place your petition on heavy foolscap paper. Get 
some one that can write a plain, bold hand, to pre- 
pare the introductory address. Have separate peti- 
tions for non-voters. Get the signers to state their 
callings after their names. Sometimes it will be an 
advantage to state after each name the political party 
to which the writer belongs. 

On the back of the petition, where it will strike the 

eye before it is opened, write, ** Petition from 

for ," and place below a summary, such as: 

** Signed by 349 different persons, of whom 226 are 
voters. Of these, 18 are cl rgymen, 26 teachers, 13 
editors and newspaper workers, 21 lawyers, 102 mer- 
chants," etc. 

In addition, it will always aid your petition if you 
can accompany it with a letter from the strongest 
and best-known man obtainable, especially if he is 
well known to the representative you are addressing. 
This letter should be brief, but should call attention 
to the leading names among the signers. Thus, 
together with the popular demonstration, we get the 
influence of the *' thoughtful few " urged by the friend 
from whom I quoted at the opening of this chapter. 

In closing these directions for the effective use of 
this powerful political engine, I have three important 
points to urge. One is, be prompt. It is when a 
measure is in the early stages of discussion that peti- 
tions are most likely to be heeded. Keep your eyes 
open to what is going on. Your petition will receive 
double respect if its promptness gives proof of your 
energy, and that you are up to date. 



34 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

Then, in the second place, follow up your peti- 
tions. Learn with what consideration they meet. 
If they are rejected, or the cause they plead, discover 
why, and who is responsible. You may have been m 
the wrong. If so, write to your representative and 
tell him so. If you still think yourself in the right, 
let your representative know that he has not repre- 
sented you, and that you will remember the fact. 
It would not need many such letters to inspire in 
the minds of politicians a very different opinion of 
petitions. 

And finally, though you will not petition so fre- 
quently as to render your efforts commonplace, 
though you will choose carefully among the many 
good causes that might fairly become themes of peti- 
tion, yet do not allow the exercise of this right and 
duty to be neglected. Your petitions, however nu- 
merous, will not lose force until you lose force. 
There is an educative value in petitions that makes 
it well worth while to petition, even if only to keep 
the people wide awake and well informed. You are 
afraid your friends will think you a nuisance? Fear 
rather that they and you will become careless and 
indifferent to your political duties. A citizen that 
objects to signing his name to a petition, even as 
often as once a month, may do so because he is too 
lazy to write, or because he does not wish to take the 
necessary trouble to inform himself and make up his 
mind concerning the point at issue. In either case 
he is a fair object for patriotic missionary work. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 35 



CHAPTER IV. 

REFORM CAMPAIGNS. 

Non-partisan. It hardly needs to be said, and yet, 
in such a book as this, it must not remain unsaid, 
that all this work for better citizenship will fail of its 
results if it is not strictly non-partisan. In the se- 
lection of men to carry it on, in its approval or disap- 
proval of nominees and measures, in all its sympathies, 
professed and implied, a Christian-citizenship move- 
ment must be entirely outside of party lines and above 
them. If, by a set of questions or otherwise, you 
think it best, the pastors agreeing, to apply a test to 
the various candidates for office, make your questions 
or other tests absolutely impartial, and present them 
to all the candidates, afterward setting all the re- 
sponses before the people without comment. Never 
permit the movement to be drawn into denunciation 
of any party. Denounce principles and measures, 
but show yourselves as ready to uphold the good in 
one party as in another. In such municipal cam- 
paigns as you will conduct if you enter into practical 
politics, national parties have no business to meddle. 
The absolute divorce of municipal affairs from the 
national parties is the only condition of permanent 
success in any municipal reform movement. 



36 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

Citizens' Movements. It is proper for our Chris- 
tian Endeavor unions, as unions, to join in any citi- 
zens' political movements that are not organized in 
opposition to political parties, but it would be mani- 
festly improper and unwise for a union made up of 
representatives of all parties by a majority vote to 
throw the weight of its influence against any one 
party. When party feeling enters into the matter at 
all, — where, that is, it is not merely a struggle of 
right against wrong, but also a contest between po- 
litical organizations, — though Endeavorers may and 
should enter the contest as individuals, the Christian 
Endeavor union and its Christian-citizenship com- 
mittee should maintain absolute silence. 

Where such action would not jeopardize the higher 
aims for w^hich Christian Endeavor exists, however, 
the Christian Endeavor union may even inaugurate 
citizens' movements. The Endeavorers may draw 
to their councils the wisest citizens of the place. 
They may, with their help, formulate a call to the 
decent men of all parties. At the mass meeting that 
will result, they may be ready to present a platforni, 
and a set of candidates to stand upon the platform. 
They may appoint a committee of management, and 
carry on the entire campaign. 

This advice, of course, takes it for granted that the 
Christian Endeavor union contains in its membership 
many men of ability and leadership, men who would 
attract followers and win and hold for such a cam- 
paign the respect it deserves and will need in order 
to succeed. In many a small town, — especially in the 



CITIZENS IX TRAINING. 37 

small towns where, through the lethargy of citizens, 
affairs have got into the hands of a few ignorant and 
corrupt men, — such a movement as this is the only 
way to rid the place of the incubus, and the young 
people may undertake it with the consciousness that 
they are doing God service. 

You cannot go far in such a campaign without ob- 
taining respectable candidates for the place from 
which you wish to oust the corrupt holders ; and 
here you will meet a serious obstacle. The offices 
have been so degraded by the occupancy of unworthy 
men that many of the best men consider it a disgrace 
to be elected to them. Besides, the salaries are so 
low as to afford no adequate remuneration for a pros- 
perous business man who will not add to official emol- 
uments by private plunder. You will need to hunt 
long, I fear, before you can find the necessary men 
of high character and position, who have enough of 
the spirit of self-sacrifice to accept nomination at the 
loss not only of personal dignity but of worldly wealth. 

It will be a great help in persuading the best men 
to accept nominations, if you go to them bearing a 
petition to them signed by a large number of the best 
citizens, and asking them to take the nominations 
and make the campaign. No man of public spirit 
and true patriotism would refuse such a call, if it 
were at all possible for him to accept it. 

As to the conduct of citizens' campaigns, the man- 
ner must difter so widely in diflferent communities 
and under different circumstances, that any directions 
I might give would prove of little value. Do not 



38 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

make the mistake of relying upon any single method 
of influencing voters. Use the mass meeting, and 
the press, and posters, and personal conversations, 
and use them all with system and heartiness. If you 
elect your men, do not stand aside and expect them 
to carry out reforms without your help, but uphold 
their hands in everyway. If — as is very likely — 
you do not elect your men the first time, keep a bold 
spirit and maintain the battle till victory is finally 
gained. 

The Help of the Press. Do not scorn that mighty 
factor in all modern enterprises, the newspaper. If 
you can win its aid in your Christian-citizenship 
work, it is already half accomplished. If you cannot 
win its aid, you must overthrow it before you can go 
far. 

In the first place, cultivate the editors and re- 
porters. Do not take it for granted that even the 
worst of the papers w^ill be out of sympathy with an 
honest reform movement. 

Many of these sheets pride themselves on their full 
news reports, and will be glad to hear from you and 
print what you say, even though they may seek to 
contradict you on their editorial pages. Think twice 
before you raise an issue, by name, against any news- 
paper. You thereby convert it into a permanent foe. 
Use it as if it were your friend until you are abso- 
lutely certain that it will not be one. 

Give all newspapers an invitation to your meeting, 
and provide equal facilities for all. Obtain for your 
letters to the paper, even for your notices of expected 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 39 

meetings, the very best writers you can interest in 
the reform. Many a reform movement, has failed 
because its leaders, though capable executive officers, 
did not know how to write, but thought they did. 
Writing that is to push any reform movement should 
show great tact, unfailing courtesy, no flippant smart- 
ness, much wit and sprightliness, sound sense, un- 
shakable accuracy, and then — after all these — as 
much eloquence as is convenient. No higher calling 
is possible for a man than to use his pen for the ac- 
complishment of some moral reform ; but high tasks 
require high ability, and this writing is too often left 
to bunglers. What is well written — in the sense 
just defined — will find ready reception at the print- 
ing-office, and a respectful reading from any constit- 
uency. What is poorly written — slovenly, tactlessly 
or bombastically — is likely rather to harm than help 
the cause it advocates. 

After all is done, however, it may be necessary, in 
order to win a victory over corruption, to start a re- 
form paper and carry it on as a permanent Christian 
work. Of course such an enterprise — though it may 
be and has been initiated by Endeavorers — is too 
large for them to manage by themselves. Practical 
men with an abundance of money must take that 
w^ork in hand. In the support of such a sheet, how- 
ever, or of the papers already existing that place 
themselves on the side of reform if it becomes neces- 
sary to draw the line, the Endeavorers may be of the 
greatest service. They may canvass for subscrip- 
tions and advertisements, aid in the systematic col- 



40 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

lection of news, and talk up the paper or papers 
among their friends. 

Even when no reform campaign is on, Christian- 
citizenship committees, purely in the interests of 
their work, should take' up the activities of press 
committees, in case such a committee does not exist. 
It is of the greatest importance that the newspapers 
be kept informed regarding the enterprises of the 
churches, and none can collect this news better than 
the Endeavorers. The editors will be glad to re- 
ceive it, if it is presented in workmanlike shape ; and, 
incidental to the publication of ordinary news items, 
there will come many a good opportunity to say a 
word for Christ and his church. 

From Door to Door. An undertaking of great 
magnitude and of far-reaching possibilities for good 
has been inaugurated by the Evangelical Alliance of 
New York City, whose head is Rev. Josiah Strong, 
D.D. They are publishing a series of neat little 
pamphlets, written, in every case, by experts of 
national fame, and each treating some important 
phase of Christian citizenship. Some of them are 
occupied with valuable digests of the laws of the 
State in which they are intended to be distributed, 
— such laws as have moral bearing. 

It is the hope of the Evangelical Alliance to enlist 
the young people in the circulation of these pam- 
phlets, and better work for a Christian Endeavor Chris 
tian-citizenship committee could hardly be devised. 
The town should be districted among the members, 
and on a certain dayX>ne kind of pamphlet should be 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 4I 

left at each house, with a personal call, — though 
brief, — and a request that the pamphlet be read. 
After a time, another pamphlet may be distributed, 
and so on. Careful selection of pamphlets should be 
made with an eye to the most pressing reform prob- 
lems, and in the calls attention should be directed to 
whatever point in the pamphlets is of especial and 
immediate pertinence. 

Of course this system of visits could be utilized 
with fine effect whenever it is necessary to arouse a 
constituency to prompt action on any moral question 
— when it is necessary that some immediate protest 
or appeal should be sent to legislature or Congress. 
These Christian Endeavor visitors, mounted on bi- 
cycles, many of them, will be all ready to circulate 
petitions, and, being already in touch each with his 
own district, would have ready access to the minds 
of the voters, and know just where to get the largest 
number of signatures with the least waste of time. 

Before Election. How far the Christian Endeav- 
orers should take part, as Endeavorers, in political 
campaigns, is a difficult and delicate question to an- 
swer. It would seem, however, that the Christian- 
citizenship committee might be able to do some few 
things in connection with a campaign without arous- 
ing just criticism. One is the obtaining of informa- 
tion about the candidates. 

There is a great deal of voting in the dark, simply 
because the voters do not know how to find out about 
the men whose names are placed before them. The 
Christian-citizenship committee, by dividing among 



42 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

them the list of candidates, each learning about a few, 
could easily gather a great deal of valuable informa- 
tion which the Christian Endeavor voters, and doubt- 
less many an older voter as well, would be glad to 
use. Of course they would ask first about the moral 
character of each candidate, and then about his at- 
titude toward moral reforms. They would want to 
know whether he was a drinking man, and whether 
his allies were among the saloon-keepers. They 
would look up his record, if he had been in office be- 
fore. They would take pains to obtain accurate and 
perfectly just information, and would sometimes ap- 
proach the candidates themselves with testing ques- 
tions. They would not put their information into 
print, of course, but would simply give it out in pri- 
vate conversations to those that wxre in real doubt, 
and seeking information. 

If the committee are discreet and are fair toward 
all parties, there is no reason why they should not 
arm themselves with information on all sorts of pub- 
lic questions that have come up for settlement, and 
so aid many a young citizen. If, for instance, there 
is a proposition for more frequent elections, if a new 
constitutional amendment is before the people, if the 
school law is likely to be changed in some important 
particular, — if any such matter of great importance 
is up for consideration, let the Christian-citizenship 
committee be ready to refer young voters to argu- 
ments, articles, and books. The committee will show 
its wisdom in refusing, under all circumstances, to 
give anv advice as to how anv one shall vote, but will 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 43 

simply set facts before him, or, better, set him in the 
way of finding out the facts for himself, and then let 
him decide for himself what his vote shall be. 

Election Returns. The Christian-citizenship com- 
mittee may arrange, for the benefit of the members 
and their friends, to receive the election returns in 
some hall where all can meet together. This will be 
especially appropriate when any reform issue is at 
stake. A group of neighboring societies or an entire 
union may combine for this purpose. The evening 
might be utilized in many pleasant ways, with social 
features, patriotic music, and recitations, but espe- 
cially with the discussion of important reform topics, 
and addresses on Christian citizenship. Interspersed 
among these exercises the returns will be announced, 
and will be posted on prominent bulletins. 



44 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 



" CHAPTER V. 

CHRISTIAN-CITIZENSHIP MEETINGS. 

A Flag Meeting. For this meeting decorate the 
room as elaborately as you please with the national 
colors. One or two talks might be given on the his- 
tory of the United States flag. Most interesting ma- 
terial for these talks may be found in Townsend's 
" U. S. "(Boston : The Lothrop Publishing Co. $i .50) . 
To illustrate these accounts, get the girls to manufac- 
ture a series of flags like those from which our national 
ensign was evolved, and hang them up one by one 
as the talk proceeds. A large copy of Washington's 
escutcheon should also be made. Besides, the na- 
tion has other kinds of flags, — the garrison flag, the 
Union Jack, the pennant, the revenue flag, — and 
these also should be obtained or made, and described. 
It will be of interest to make, also, a flag like one 
of those used by the Confederate States in the Civil 
War — perhaps their battle flag. If you can get them, 
or make them, show a few of the flags that are most 
like ours, such as those of France, Cuba, Liberia, 
and Chili, and note their resemblances. Compare 
also a few of the flags that are most diverse from ours, 
such as those of Japan, China, Austria, Persia. Pic- 
tures of these maybe drawn, of large size, and colored. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 45 

Another part of the evening's programme will be 
the recital of some of the many stirring events in which 
our flag has played a conspicuous part. Dozens of 
them will come to the mind of any student of history. 
Divide these stories up, one to an Endeavorer, and 
insist that they be told — not written out and read. 

There are many poems upon the flag. Make a good 
selection from these. Drake's magnificent poem will 
come to mind at once, *' The Star-Spangled Banner," 
** Barbara Frietchie,"' and many more, for almost 
every American poet has a flag poem. Among the 
best of these is Holmes's " The Flower of Liberty." 
Some of these have been set to music and may be 
sung by a well-trained chorus. Extracts from *' The 
Man Without a Country "'' and many another patriotic 
tale would inspire the audience with thought of what 
the flag means to the nation. 

At this point you might introduce a salute to the 
flag such as is described in the chapter, *' The Res- 
cue of the Fourth." Another attractive feature of 
the meeting might be the formal presentation of a 
flag to the public schools of the town, if they are 
without a flag. Every schoolhouse should keep the 
national banner flying above it while in session. 

If you can get some old soldier to give a talk about 
the flag, his memories of the scenes in which it has 
been prominent, you will be certain to listen to a 
speech that will fill you with deeper love for your 
country. 

A good topic for the close of the meeting is this 
twofold one: "What Christianity has done for our 



46 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

flag, and what the flag means for Christianity.'' 
Some good speaker may take this for his theme, or, 
perhaps better, it may become the subject of an 
" open meeting," in which all the members will par- 
ticipate. 

It will be seen that a flag meeting is full of pictur- 
esque possibilities, and crowded with opportunities 
for arousing patriotic thoughts. The outline given 
for the United States will serve as well, merely chan- 
ging a few terms, for any of the many lands into which 
Christian Endeavor has been carried. 

A Biographical Meeting. Such a meeting is 
based entirely on the life of some great American, 
say Garfield, or Hamilton, or Samuel Adams, or 
Franklin. If you select a man whose birthday anni- 
versary falls within the week or on the day of the 
meeting, all the better. Obtain all the portraits of 
the man you can, and hang them in view of the audi- 
ence. Pictures of the houses in which he lived, of 
the personages of the times, of the scenes in which 
he was engaged, should be added to the collection. 
Obtain also his autograph — in facsimile, if you can 
do no better. You may be fortunate enough to get 
hold of some relics of the great man you are to study, 
or at least something that has come down from the 
time in w^hich he lived. All such articles should be 
placed on exhibition. Old newspapers and books are 
as suggestive as anything you could obtain. 

Print clearly and post before the society a list of 
the chief deeds in the life you wish to present. This 
will serve as a back-bone for the meetino^. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 47 

Your leader will open the meeting with a scripture 
reading appropriate to the national hero whose char- 
acter you intend to display, followed by a suitable 
hymn. Prayers for the nation and its many interests 
may follow. Then the leader may give a short sketch 
of the life in its mere outlines — not too much for 
easy grasping and holding. 

Others will follow wdth anecdotes concerning the 
man, each rising and telling his story in his own 
words, not reading it. Interpose extracts from his 
writings, together with recitations of poems that con- 
cern him. 

The evening may close with three papers, one of 
them a general summary of his life ; one a compari- 
son of his life with those of others ; and one of them 
telling the lessons to be learned from it. 

In carrying out such a plan as this, much will de- 
pend upon the choice of a hero. First take stock 
of the literature accessible, and all other sources of 
information and illustration, and choose the man or 
woman about whom you have the prospect of obtain- 
ing the most that is interesting and helpful. Here is 
a list of names that may prove useful. Any of these 
would furnish material for a rich evening : Sumner, 
Webster, Governor John Winthrop, Samuel Adams, 
Lafayette, Andrew Jackson, John Brown, General 
Armstrong, Custer, Horace Mann, Garfield, Curtis, 
Lowell, Garrison, Patrick Henry, Grant, Grady, Lee, 
Franklin, Roger Williams, John Marshall, Jeiferson, 
Wendell Phillips. Of course the list could be ex- 
tended indefinitely, and I have purposely omitted, as 



48 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

meetings devoted to them are described elsewhere, 
the great names of Washington and Lincoln. 

Patriotic Sharp-Shooting. A meeting with this 
title will be easily and attractively advertised, and 
will interest both participants and hearers. Give your 
orders for the meeting very plainly, and get the assent 
of the members, so that there will be no mistake 
about it. 

Each will agree to furnish three things : one fact, 
one quotation, one desire. The fact v^ill concern the 
nation — some statement regarding its greatness, — 
its size, population, products, achievements ; any 
evidence of national growth that can be packed into 
a sentence or two. Limit the members to two sen- 
tences each, under this head. 

The quotation will be patriotic, and in verse or 
prose. If verse, it must not go beyond one stanza; 
if prose, it must not contain more than three sen- 
tences. The name of the author must be given at 
the beginning of each quotation, as it is read. 

The ** desire " is to be some wish for your country's 
future. This may concern any reform you wish to 
see accomplished, any improvement you wish to see 
made. It may be expressed in prayer, when sen- 
tence prayers are called for, or it may be voiced in 
other ways. 

The meeting will be divided into four parts, not 
including the leader's introduction, which should be 
short. First, the facts. They will be given in swift 
succession, and should be such as the follow- 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 49 

** The State of Texas is as large as the six New Eng- 
land States plus the four Middle States, plus Maryland, 
Virginia, 'West Virginia, plus New Jersey, Connecticut, 
and Rhode Island measured over again. The entire popu- 
lation of the world could stand, without crowding, in a 
single one of the vast counties of Texas." 

** Lake Superior is nearly four times as large as Massa- 
chusetts. On the waters belonging to the United States 
live many thousands of sailors, who are peculiarly hard 
to reach with the gospel." 

"Our nation has had nine different capitals: Phila- 
delphia at several times, also Lancaster and York, Penn- 
sylvania, Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland, Princeton 
and Trenton, New Jersey, New York City, and Washing- 
ton. On the sitq of the present capital was a settlement 
called Rome, built on a stream still called the Tiber, the 
ground being owned by a man named Pope, which may 
be thought a prophecy of the present strong Catholic in- 
fluence at the national capital." 

After a bombardment of such facts, — to illustrate 
which, by the way, a map will be helpful, — call for 
the quotations. These will be found very easily. 
Take them preferably from the men that have been 
prominent in public life. For instance, the follow- 



**The earnest, patriotic speaker and writer, George 
William Curtis, once said: * By public duty, I mean sim- 
ply that constant and active practical participation in the 
details of politics, without which the conduct of public 
affairs falls into the control of selfish and ignorant, venal 
and crafty men.' " 



50 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

** A. R. Spofford, for many years the Librarian of Con- 
gress, declares that ' frauds upon the ballot-box should be 
ranked among the worst of crimes against republican gov- 
ernment.' " 

*' Henry Clay said: 'Government is a trust, and the 
officers of the government are trustees, and both the trust 
and the trustees are created for the benefit of the peo- 
ple.' " 

*^ George Washington said: * The very idea of the 
power and the right of the people to establish govern- 
ment presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the 
established government.' " 

*' Said Daniel Webster : ' Let us remember that it is only 
jeligion and morals and knowledge that can make men 
respectable and happy under any form of government.' " 

Then may come the expressions of hope for the 
nation, together with prayers for its interests. These 
will be followed by the fourth part of the programme, 
which may be a set address on some patriotic sub- 
ject, by the best speaker the society can' command. 

A Bird's-eye Meeting. In this meeting you will 
attempt to arouse patriotism by showing the immense 
resources of your country, and the great good it may 
do with them. You will need to divide the themes 
among the members, or you will land in confusion. 
Let one have the task of illustrating the nation's 
wealth, another its area, another its population, — 
the mere bulk of it, — another the various races that 
constitute it. To others assign such topics as its 
schools, its churches, its newspapers, its climates. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 51 

agricultural products, manufactories, excellences of 
government, the noblemen and women of its history, 
its charities and philanthropies. Only a word can 
be said on each of the scores of topics that may be 
introduced. 

The committee can help greatly to make the meet- 
ing effective by suggesting and helping in the prep- 
aration of maps and diagrams. For example, to show 
the size of the United States draw a large map of the 
country, and then set off upon it in different colors 
various foreign nations of the same area as certain 
groups of States, until the whole is covered. 

To show the population, cut a long strip of paper, 
placing it upon a roller. Mark off a few feet in inches. 
Talk about setting a thousand men on each inch. 
Unroll it slowly, telling to how many thousand men 
you are thus giving room. When it has been un- 
rolled across the room, say for how many thousand 
miles you must keep on in order to give room for the 
whole population of the country. 

To show the races, draw a large circle, and color 
segments of it to represent the different races, each 
seo-ment having a size proportionate to the number 
of persons that race has in this country. 

To exhibit our variety of climates, show in swift 
succession a pine-cone from Maine, an orange from 
Florida, a lemon from California, flour from Dakota 
wheat, and the like. The more you present of such 
illustrations, the better will your facts and figures be 
remembered, and the more eager attention will they 
receive. 



52 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

But do not permit this, interesting and valuable 
though it is, to override the main purpose of the 
meeting, w^hich is to show how our great national re- 
sources should be used for Christ. Here again you 
must divide up the subject, and here you will need to 
use your best speakers. You can find time to treat 
briefly only a few simple topics. For instance, some 
one may say a word about the immense immigration 
to this country, and what good we are doing by train- 
ing for upright and intelligent citizenship so many 
rude and ignorant foreigners. The reform of crimi- 
nals, the example of a noble government afforded the 
world, the help we give to the darkened nations by 
foreign missions, — such themes as these may be dis- 
cussed most profitably. It will require pains and 
planning to make this meeting the success it should 
be; but then, nothing worth doing is done without 
planning and pains. 

A Great-Moments Meeting. The history of any 
nation will be found to be full of striking events — 
events that should not only be known to all citizens, 
but whose teachings are so clear and important that 
they furnish the best kind of material for thought at 
a religious gathering. 

You will need to explain quite fully the purpose of 
the meeting. Give examples of the great moments 
you think worthy to be discussed. For instance, the 
call for volunteers for our Civil War, the Declaration 
of Independence, the assassination of Lincoln, the 
first step in teaching the first deaf mute, the first 
demonstration of ether, the signing of the Emancipa- 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 53 

tion Proclamation, the first telegraphic message, the 
first steamboat voyage, the first use of the telephone, 
the first message over the Atlantic cable, the dis- 
covery of gold in California, the opening of the Cen- 
tennial Exposition. 

If the committee think it best, they may themselves 
form such a list and distribute the topics among the 
members, asking each to draw some lesson from the 
topic assigned him. The interpretation of the event 
need not be given in the member's own words. He 
may find words of Scripture, or some beautiful poem, 
that will say for him what he would like to say. This 
plan will give you, if it is carried out with sprightli- 
ness, a very lively and helpful meeting. 

Bible Patriots. A Bible study in patriotism will be 
sure to set your society to thinking, and indeed it is 
wonderful how many fresh and pertinent lessons for 
our modern times can be learned from the lives of 
these ancient heroes. ** What lessons for our nation 
and for our citizens from the life of Abraham ? " will 
be one of the questions propounded, followed by a 
long and noble list of Hebrew patriots. 

The committee may throw out the question to the 
society without mention of any names, leaving it for 
each member to choose his own hero. Or it may 
apportion the patriots among the members, giving 
each a slip of paper bearing only one name. Or it 
may present to each a long and complete list, and 
ask him to select the one he would most like to speak 
about. The last way would be the best in most 
instances. 



54 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

Here is a suggestive list : Abraham, Moses, Jo- 
seph, Samuel, Gideon, David, Asa, Joshua, Heze- 
kiah, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Amos, 
Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Paul, Of course Christ 
himself will not be omitted from such a list of pa- 
triots. 

A Great-Leaders Meeting. For this evening ask 
each member to bring an anecdote of some interest- 
ing fact about some of the world's great patriots, and 
in a few words to bring out from it some lesson for 
American citizens. If necessary in any case, the 
committee should be ready to give help not only by 
naming men worth looking up in this connection, 
but also by pointing to different events in their lives 
from which lessons may be learned. Such leaders of 
men as Luther, William of Orange, Knox, Savonarola, 
Franklin, Garibaldi, and General Gordon will furnish 
forth a most inspiring meeting. 

A Duty Meeting. "Our duty toward our coun- 
try" — this theme, if well developed, would fill out a 
glorious evening. Try the plan of handing to each 
member a slip of paper containing the merest sug- 
gestion of the line of thought you wish him to take 
up at the meeting. For instance, the word, " Taxes," 
will suggest our duty to pay our just taxes promptly 
and without evasion ; *' Praise," will hint at our duty 
to say a good word for our country whenever we 
can; "Pray," will lead the recipient of the slip to 
speak of the duty of prayer for our rulers and our land. 
Other condensed hints are: "Write," "Money," 
" Study," " Fight," " Primary," "Vote," '* Informed," 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 55 

" Brave," '' Temperance,'" '* Jury," '* Homes," " Of- 
fice,*' "Time." Some of these topics may be given 
to more than one. The committee will, of course, 
explain the meaning of the hint whenever it is not 
understood, and will stand ready to assist any one 
that wants help in getting something to say. 

An Appreciation Meeting. " Why are you proud 
of your country ? " Ask each member to answer 
that question in his own way, and you will have an 
excellent and stimulating meeting. Throw out the 
hint that each should seek to give not the most ob- 
vious reason but one obtained by looking a little 
beneath the surface. It will be well, too, to ask the 
leading w^orkers to come with several points, so that 
they need not repeat those given by others. Permit 
the members to illustrate their points in any way they 
please, and suggest that sometimes pictures, some- 
times poems, sometimes songs may be introduced, 
and add emphasis to the points the members wish to 
make. Additional value will be given to the meet- 
ing, if the leader appoint some one to take notes 
and at the close to sum up rapidly the many reasons 
that have been given why we should be proud of our 
country. 

Patriotic Quotations. A Christian-citizenship 
meeting easy to prepare, and very effective indeed, 
may be got up by simply giving to each member of 
the society some quotation bearing on Christian citi- 
zenship, and asking him to read it at the meeting, 
being sure to add some comment of his own. Ask 
him to tell who wrote his quotation, and suggest that 



56 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

very likely some good illustration of the quotation 
may be found in the life of its author. Many very 
fine extracts on a wide range of patriotic topics may 
be found in ** Patriotic Citizenship," by General 
Morgan, published by the American Book Company, 
New York, and sold for $1.00. 

A Gratitude Meeting. Especially near Thanks- 
giving time it would be appropriate to hold a ** grati- 
tude meeting," in the interests of Christian citizen- 
ship. The topic might be worded thus : *' What our 
nation has done for the church, and what the church 
should do for the nation." See how many stirring 
themes may be treated under this head : — 

Personal safety under our government. 

1. How it aids the church in its work. (Compare 

with other countries.) 

2. How the church can increase this safety. 
Our public-school system. 

1. What it does for the church. 

2. What the church should do for the school. 
Our national business prosperity. 

1. How the church is helped by the nation's wealth. 

2. What the church can do to increase the nation's 

riches. 
The example of our great statesmen and warriors. 

1. How we may utilize it in our church work. 

2. What the church may do to better the quality of 

the average office-holder. 

The nation's newspapers. 

1. What they do for the church. 

2. What the church may do for them. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 57 

A temperate nation. 

1. How we lead in temperance principles and prac- 

tices. 

2. How the church can push the nation still further; 

to the front in this regard. 

These twelve topics are indicative of the wide 
range of subjects that may be taken up in such a 
meeting. Divide them among the members, assign- 
ing one to several members, if you please, and giving 
out quotations which those may read that have noth- 
ing to say of their own. Call for many prayers for 
our country, prayers of gratitude as well as of peti- 
tion. Throw your whole soul into the meeting, and 
it will prove one of the best you have held. 

Patriot Groups. A series of very interesting 
meetings may be built up by considering at each 
meeting the lessons from the lives of some group 
of patriots, such as the great orators of the nation. 
These may be treated after the fashion described in 
the section on biographical meetings, except that only 
a little can be told about each person, on account 
of the limited time. Simply one or two character- 
istic anecdotes will be enough, with the teachings 
of each. It will be the business of the committee to 
make a list of the orators thaft are to be discussed, 
and apportion them among the members of the 
society, letting each choose the orator he prefers to 
study. 

Other groups for other evenings are : our great 
generals, patriotic citizens, great sailors, patriotic 
merchants, our patriot poets, patriotic women. The 



58 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

Christian-citizenship committee, in preparation for 
such meetings as these, would do well to collect for 
some time previous as many interesting and pointed 
anecdotes as possible about our national heroes and 
heroines, or make memoranda of the books in which 
they are to be found, that the members may be 
guided in their search. 

A President's Meeting. Of course many a patri- 
otic and useful lesson may be learned from the noble 
men that have become chief magistrates of our na- 
tion, and an evening devoted to the studying of their 
lives would be well spent. Their portraits should 
hang about the room, as large in size as you can ob- 
tain. Add, also, pictures of their birthplaces, when 
you can get them, and of all other scenes connected 
with them. Assign one president to a member, giv- 
ing the same name to more than one, if there are not 
enough to go around. Ask each member to come 
prepared to give some interesting anecdote regarding 
his man, and also to point out some lesson to be 
learned from his life. In addition, some of the En- 
deavorers may be appointed to read short extracts 
from the best of the writings of our presidents. 

The presidents should be called for in chronolo- 
gical order, and before any member takes part, the 
leader should say a word about that president, aim- 
ing to present a very few of the facts regarding him 
that are most necessary to be known. For instance, 
name the one most important event of his adminis- 
tration ; tell to what denomination each president 
belonged ; name the political party to which each 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 59 

belonged; give the date of his inauguration. The 
last is best shown by a large-type table posted before 
the society. Opposite this table, in the proper 
places, the leader may rapidly write a few words 
summarizing the facts he gives. 

It will be easy to overdo this part of the pro- 
gramme. Remember that the meeting is not a his- 
tpry lesson, but is solely to get inspiration from these 
great lives. Close with prayers *'for the President 
of the United States, and all others in authority." 

This plan, of course, may be adapted easily to any 
other nation, and will furnish an especially rich even- 
ing in such countries as England and Scotland. 

A View of Reforms. It will form a very good 
programme for some Christian-citizenship meeting 
if you make the evening a summary of the principal 
reform movements, trying to show their present 
status, with as much of their past history and pur- 
poses for the future as you can bring in. You will 
be able to get some specialists to speak upon their 
hobbies, (be sure to make them understand their 
limitation as to time ! ) but for the most part you will 
depend upon the Endeavorers themselves. You will 
want, of course, to treat the temperance question, 
although it must be treated briefly in such a meeting. 
You will add civil service reform. Sabbath obser- 
vance, the divorce reform, ballot reforms, the initiative 
and the referendum, reforms in municipal govern- 
ment, progress made against speculation and gam- 
bling, suffrage reforms, the introduction of the curfew, 
the suppression of lynch law. Such a meeting as 



6o CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

this might wisely be followed by a meeting wholly 
devoted to the lives of the great reformers, — les- 
sons from Garrison, Miss Willard, Bergh, Howard, 
Gough, Comstock, Parkhurst, and other heroes and 
heroines. 

A Seal Meeting. A study of the State seals and 
arms of our nation and of the various national seals 
would fill out an evening of much interest and profit. 
Many a helpful lesson could be learned from them. 
Some are very suggestive ; for instance, Utah's bee- 
hive, Kentucky's clasped hands, Nevada's **A11 for 
our country," West Virginia's '* Montani semper lib- 
eri," — indeed, all of them have their points of ap- 
propriateness and interest, and there are few, if any, 
from which some good patriotic lesson may not easily 
be drawn. The best way is to divide these State and 
national emblems among the members, asking each 
to discover the full significance of the one assigned 
to him, and to come prepared to develop its meaning 
before the society. In some way get large copies of 
the seals made from the pictures in any large diction- 
ary, copies large enough to be seen readily across 
the room. These should be exhibited one by one, 
as each State is called, and then hung up so that at 
the close of the meeting the walls are well covered. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 6l 



CHAPTER VI. 

TEMPERANCE MEETINGS. 

Our Christian Endeavor topic cards customarily 
contain each year four temperance topics. I wonder 
how many societies use them as genuine temperance 
topics, and how many take them in their most gen- 
eral aspect, shifting them, as far as possible, from 
the disagreeable and supposably worn-out theme of 
temperance! If this is the habit of some societies, 
it is because those societies do not know how inter- 
esting a temperance meeting may be made, and what 
a variety of fashions may be adopted in the conduct 
of them. Here are a few of them, and they may 
lead you to devise others. 

A Bible Search. Divide the books of the Bible 
among the members of the society, asking each to 
bring to the meeting some account of what his book 
has to say on the subject of temperance. Thus the 
meeting will cover the entire Bible, and present a 
view which will be interesting from its completeness. 
Suggest that as many as possible commit to memory 
the passages bearing on the subject, and recite them. 
The leader should be prepared on all the Bible — you 
will need a good Bible scholar for a leader ! — so that 
if any one is absent, his part of the work may be cov- 



62 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

ered. Intersperse singing, and close with a five-min- 
ute talk by your pastor on the Bible and temperance. 

A Biographical Meeting. The hour will be spent 
in a presentation of the interesting features in the 
life of some great temperance reformer. Such charac- 
ters as Father Mathew, Miss Willard, John B. Gough, 
Lady Henry Somerset, Francis Murphy, John G. 
Woolley, Neal Dow, Mother Stewart, may be se- 
lected. It will be easy to obtain striking incidents 
from these strong lives. These should be told, and 
not read. Vou may take some single life, or a group 
of lives. For examples of the latter: " Some Noble 
Lives Spoiled by Intemperance " (such as Poe, 
Burns, Lamb); '* Bible Heroes of Temperance": 
*' Women That Have Promoted Temperance.*"' 
Hang portraits before the audience. Use extracts 
from the writings of those whose lives you treat. 
Have an appropriate poem or two recited. 

An Historical Meeting. Much history has already 
been made by the temperance reform, and it is his- 
tory well worth studying. What an inspiring hour, 
for instance, might be spent in telling the thrilling 
story of the Woman's Crusade I Tlien, there are 
the Washingtonian movement, the ''Blue Ribbon" 
movement, the World's Temperance Petition, the 
Maine law, and similar struggles in other States. 
*' Temperance in the White House and the Capitor"" 
would furnish an interesting theme. For this meet- 
ing get the help of some one who participated in the 
history you are to discuss, if you can find such a per- 
son ; and you probably can. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 6;^ 

An Organization Meeting. An evening may well 
be spent in a bird's-eye view of all the temperance 
organizations, — the Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union, the " Vs,'' the National Temperance Society, 
the Good Templars, the national Prohibition party, 
the Loyal Legion, the temperance work of Christian 
Endeavor societies, the temperance societies among 
the Catholics, and the like. Facts should be pre- 
sented about the form of organization of each, the 
way they are supported, their great leaders, their tri- 
umphs, their methods, their aims. Have, to give 
away, samples of the literature published by each, 
especially of the temperance periodicals. It would 
be a good plan to assign some one organization to 
each committee, and call upon each, in turn, to pre- 
sent its subject as it pleases. 

A Newspaper Meeting. There is always a great 
deal in the newspapers that bears more or less di- 
rectly on temperance. It will result in a valuable 
meeting if you set your Endeavorers to ferreting out 
these items. Some of the States may have just 
passed through a campaign with reference to prohibi- 
tion. In some of the States, according to law, this 
question must be submitted to the people every year. 
In a neighboring city a stirring temperance address 
may have been made, and you can get reports of 
it. Some of the great temperance organizations 
have held their annual conventions. Some business 
man has fallen, his ruin being traceable to drink. A 
murder has been committed by a man under the in- 
fluence of liquor. Disclosures of distress among the 



64 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

poor have been made ; and poverty, in nearly every 
case, is the result of strong drink. The elections of 
some great city are under the control of the rum 
power and evil men are getting into office. Such 
facts as these may be found in abundance. Explain 
the plan fully to the society, and offer to aid those 
that have difficulty in finding items, and you will 
have a good meeting — one that will be especially 
strong because of its freshness and undoubted 
authenticity. 

A Map Meeting. Draw a map of the entire city 
showing the streets plainly enough to be seen across 
the room. Divide the city into districts, and send 
the members of the society to locate each saloon, 
church, and school-house. At the meeting, as these 
reports are given, some one will stand before the 
society ar>d place *' stickers" on the map, — black 
for each ^loon, red for each school-house, and blue 
for each church. On the conclusion, let some good 
speaker draw the moral in a five-minute talk. On 
another occasion, or on the same evening, if you have 
time for it, draw a large outline map of the United 
States, and prepare also dissected maps of the differ- 
ent States. These will be colored to represent the 
kind and extent of temperance legislation so far 
adopted in each. For instance, all that have the 
Massachusetts plan will be of one color ; the South 
Carolina plan, another ; the Maine plan, another ; 
the Ohio plan, another. Of course a careful expla- 
nation must be given of what each plan is. The 
States will be pinned upon a large map one by one, 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 65 

as the temperance status of each is set forth, and the 
result will be a large amount of temperance informa- 
tion very pleasantly imbibed and digested. 

A Statistics Meeting. In this meeting try to make 
vivid the tremendous meaning of temperance statis- 
tics. The temperance committee will provide a large 
number of these, obtaining them from the National 
Temperance Almanac (published by the National 
Temperance Society, New York) and from similar 
sources. These figures are to be treated in different 
ways. Some — the more backward — may simply be 
asked to read them. Others may be trusted to illus- 
trate their figures with their own devices. The most 
you will have to show what you want them to do. 
For instance, giving one the number of drunkards 
that die every year in this country, ask him to get a 
line of boys to march across the room before the 
audience, after which he will tell how long would be 
the column of drunkards that die every year, if they 
should march past at the same rate. Give to another 
member the number of saloons in the country and the 
number of church buildings. Ask him to figure out 
and tell the audience how long streets each would 
make. Tell another how much money is spent for 
strong drink each year, and ask him to imagine an 
equivalent pile of silver dollars, and find out how 
high a column they would make. With strips of 
paper of various lengths, with squares of different 
sizes and colors, with blocks of wood, and pictures, 
and all sorts of diagrams, you can make even the 
driest set of figures as interesting as a fairy tale. 



66 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

A Quotations Meeting. Ask each Endeavorer to 
bring to the meeting some brief quotation bearing 
on temperance. Give the widest liberty. It may be 
in prose or poetry, figures or fancy, anecdote or ex- 
hortation. Urge each member to make some com- 
ment on what he reads. Strictly limit each to one 
minute or less. Intersperse singing. Close with a 
strong temperance address which will bring together 
some of the most striking thoughts that have been 
expressed. 

Other Plans. A few methods may be mentioned 
more briefly. Devote the entire time at some meet- 
ing to a temperance address, if you can get some 
eloquent or practical speaker. Get some teacher of 
temperance in the public schools to give a talk on the 
physiological effects of alcohol, illustrated by some 
of the convincing experiments that are described in 
temperance physiologies. Try a debate on some topic 
C(3nnected with temperance. This debate should not 
be long, of course, but should be dignified, and appro- 
priate to a meeting held on the Sabbath. Present 
an occasional number of a temperance paper edited — 
in manuscript, of course — by one of the society, but 
with contributions of all kinds from all the members. 
*' The Cold Water Herald " would be a good name 
for it. Fin.ally, and most important of all, hold 
some time a pledge meeting, in which will be urged, 
as powerfully as you can get it urged, the wisdom 
and duty of signing the temperance pledge. Some 
societies keep framed and hung upon the wall a 
temperance pledge with the signatures of all their 



CITIZENS IX TRAINING. 67 

members. Besides being a fine advertisement for 
temperance and notification of the temperance princi- 
ples of the society, this pledge makes a very pleasant 
souvenir of former members. 

Temperance Mass Meetings. In bringing about 
a temperance reform in your town, emergencies are 
likely to arise that call for temperance mass meetings, 
and few agencies can organize these so effectively as 
the Christian Endeavor societies, especially if they 
work as a local union. First, as a ** drawing card,"* 
get some eloquent speaker and advertise him well. 
You can hardly, however, expect him to treat your 
local needs. For this purpose open the meeting with 
a speech, or, better, with four or five short speeches, 
from well-known local business men and clergymen. 
It may be that the laws you have are not well en- 
forced. You may greatly need new and more strin- 
gent laws. Whatever the theme may be, divide its 
appropriate sub-topics among the local speakers, and 
insist on brevity. Of course, if you can get speeches 
from the present office-holders or from former office- 
holders, so much the better, provided they are on 
the right side. Be sure to bring upon the platform 
— and on the programme, too, if possible — represen- 
tatives of all political parties. 

Decorate the platform brilliantly. Placard the hall 
with telling temperance mottoes in large tA-pe. Get 
out the band and have it parade around town before 
the meeting. Form a large temperance chorus from 
the Christian Endeavorers. Distribute among the 
audience slips of paper bearing the words of temper- 



68 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

ance songs, which are to be sung to well-known 
tunes. 

Get the speakers to make as many points as possi- 
ble by diagrams, and prepare these diagrams for them. 
Such matters as the number of saloons in town, com- 
pared with the number of schools and churches, may 
be shown by a map. Diagrams may be prepared 
showing graphically the relative number of arrests in 
towns with and without saloons. The ratio of drunk- 
ards to population, the amount of money received 
from licenses compared with that paid out for courts, 
jails, poor-houses, and the like — such telling facts 
as these may be presented clearly to the eye ; and 
what gets to the mind that way usually sticks. 

Applaud the speakers well. Put all the enthusiasm 
you can into the meeting. Bring it to a head by the 
adoption of a ringing resolution. And then go out 
and work, with the understanding that the meeting 
was only a beginning of the undertaking, after all. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 69 



CHAPTER VII. 

CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP ON HOLIDAYS. 

The Use of Holidays. It has become customary 
in some of the States to use patriotic holidays, such 
as Washington's Birthday, the Fourth of July, Labor 
Day, and Patriots' Day, as meeting times for district, 
county, and city, Christian Endeavor unions. It 
speaks well for the devotion of our young people that 
they are willing to sacrifice their holidays to these 
religious conventions. As might have been expected, 
the addresses on these days have been tinged with 
the character of the holiday, so that Christian citizen- 
ship has often come to the front, and many a local- 
union programme has been made up entirely along 
Christian-citizenship lines. By the use of such holi- 
days, Christian-citizenship committees will get an 
opportunity for the implanting of much good seed. 

On Memorial Day. If your town has a Grand 
Army post, or any association of old soldiers, you 
will simply offer your services to them and put your- 
selves under their direction for the celebration of 
Memorial Day. They will be glad of your aid in 
decorating, in singing, in obtaining the flowers. If 
the young people have any organization that can fitly 
parade, the veterans would be glad to be joined by it. 



70 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

But if the old soldiers are not numerous enough to 
take the day into their own hands, — and before long, 
alas ! the old soldiers will have passed away, — then 
very appropriately the Christian Endeavor societies 
may take up the task of providing some proper me- 
morial services, and of decorating the graves of our 
honored dead. 

A speaker should be obtained for an address, and 
the best speaker you can find. Have the old soldiers 
sit on the platform, if even one is in your midst. To 
fill out and vary the exercises, in addition to the ad- 
dress you may make use of some of the following 
Christian Endeavor contributions : — 

A flag salute. 

A patriotic anthem and other patriotic songs. 

Appropriate Scripture verses, or a long passage 
from the Bible repeated in concert. 

War poems, recited by the Endeavorers and the 
Juniors. 

Striking anecdotes of war times, showing the bra- 
very and devotion of the soldiers. 

Tributes to the great men of the war ; brief extracts. 

*^ Our town in the war " — a pape*- of reminiscences 
gathered from talks with the old people. 

Sentence prayers for the nation. 

Open meeting, with testimony from all that will : 
**What my country has a right to expect of me.*' 

Washington's and Lincoln's Birthdays. More 
suitable occasions there could not be for the empha- 
sizing of patriotic lessons than the birthdays of these 
great patriots. If nothing else is done, the Christian- 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 7 1 

citizenship committee should see that the Christian 
Endeavor prayer meeting nearest to the birthday 
contains something appropriate to the day. It will 
be fine, however, if you can get the society to hold 
on the exact anniversary a special birthday meeting. 
You will place in some conspicuous position portraits 
of the hero to be treated. You will decorate the 
room with national emblems. You will obtain pa- 
triotic music. You will get some eloquent speaker 
for the chief attraction, and yet in some way you 
will work the Endeavorers themselves into the pro- 
gramme, using a few of the following briefly indi- 
cated plans. 

For WashingtoiC s Birthday : Short essays of 
not more than five minutes each on *' Washington's 
Christianity," ** Washington's Mother," " Washing- 
ton's Wife," *' Washington's Bravery," ** Washing- 
ton's Personal Habits," "■ Washington's Home," 
** Washington as a General," ** Washington as Presi- 
dent." Extracts from Washington's writings. Brief 
anecdotes about Washington. Open parliament : 
** What I most admire in George Washington." Sym- 
posium : *' Lessons our country needs to learn from 
Washington." Poems about Washington. 

For Li/icoln^s Birthday : Five - minute essays : 
'* Lincoln's Religious Belief," " Lincoln's Boyhood," 
** Lincoln's Modesty," *' Lincoln's Courage," ** Lin- 
coln as an Orator," *' Lincoln as a Lawyer," *' Lin- 
coln as President," *' Lincoln's Death," *' Lincoln as 
a Writer." Some of Lincoln's anecdotes. Some 
anecdotes about Lincoln, showing his kindness of 



72 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

heart, his keen good sense, his trust in God, his ha- 
tred of shams, etc. Tributes to Lincohi from great 
writers. Open parliament: ** What I should like to 
imitate in Lincoln's character." Symposium ; ** What 
Lincoln did for this country." Quotations from Lin- 
coln's speeches and writings. 

You may be fortunate enough to get a talk from 
some one that has seen Lincoln ; at any rate, from 
some one that remembers his times. You will doubt- 
less be able to find and place on exhibition some copy 
of a newspaper published at the time of the assassi- 
nation, or other relic of those days. 

Thanksgiving Day. In some towns the good old 
custom of a Thanksgiving. Day service in the church 
is falHng into disuse. If this is the case in your town, 
petition for its revival, on patriotic grounds if on no 
higher. If there are clergymen to take it in charge, 
the Endeavorers will probably have little to do except 
to decorate the church and possibly provide the 
music. But they can help greatly by advertising the 
meeting and by getting out their friends. It may 
happen, however, that the Endeavorers themselves 
must take charge of the meeting, if there is one ; and, 
at any rate, the Christian Endeavor prayer meeting 
next to Thanksgiving Day always has a Thanksgiving 
topic, and the patriotic work of the Christian-citizen- 
ship committee may find in some of these ways an 
abundant field. At their own meeting, then, or at 
others where they must take a more or less conspicu- 
ous part, the Endeavorers may introduce portions of 
the followino^ exercises : — 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 73 

Recitation of some appropriate poem, such as 
Whittier's ** For an Autumn Festival " or Alice Cary\s 
** Thanksgiving. "•■ 

Concert repetition of some appropriate Psalm, such 
as the one hundredth or the twenty-third. 

Repetition of Thanksgiving and patriotic Bible 
verses by the members. 

Sentence prayers of Thanksgiving, especially re- 
membering our national blessings. Follow this by a 
series of sentence prayers of petition for the coming 
year, especially remembering our country's dangers 
and needs. 

A series of two-minute papers or talks : ** Some of 
the blessings our country has received from God this 
past year"; "Reasons why we are grateful for our 
nation" ; '' Under what conditions will God continue 
his- favor to our land?" 

A patriotic song by the Juniors. 

Brief descriptions, by different Endeavorers, of 
conditions in lands less fortunate than ours. 

Opening of a thanksgiving-box, to which each 
Endeavorer has contributed some brief expression 
of thankfulness for some particular blessing. Let a 
good speaker read these and comment on them. 

Close the meeting wdth the Doxology. 

Be sure to receive an offering for the poor, and also 
ask all to bring gifts of food and clothing. 



74 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE RESCUE OF THE FOURTH. 

The good old ways of celebrating the Fourth of 
July, which made of it a day for the true revival of 
patriotism, are passing even out of memory in many 
parts of our country. To restore them to popular favor 
would be as noble work for better citizenship as any 
Christian Endeavor society could undertake. If the 
reader of this page is a citizen of some land other than 
the United States, it may be that his national holidays 
also are becoming days for mere merry-making, and 
that not of the highest type, in which case these sug- 
gestions may be adapted to meet his needs. 

If your society wishes to reform the celebration of 
the Fourth in your community, it must begin early, 
before other and less wise plans have been formed, 
and anticipate them. Advertise widely your inten- 
tion. Print full accounts of the preparations. When 
the programme is ready, have it inserted in the town 
paper. Use handbills and posters. Set people to 
talking about it. Make folks think that something 
is coming. 

All the better if you can persuade the societies in 
some neighboring town to take up the same plans 
as yours, and co-operate with you. You might thus 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 75 

effect a trade of speakers, the orators from each town 
going to the other, where they are less known and 
where people will be more eager to hear them. 

Your success will depend largely upon the number 
of persons you interest in the exercises by giving them 
an actual part in them. The schools and the Sunday 
schools and the Christian Endeavor societies, the 
preachers, the teachers, the lawyers, the editors, the 
singers and the brass bands, young folks and old folks, 
— all must be w^orked in. Be sure not to leave out the 
Catholics ; they too are Americans. On this day of 
all days permit no lines of sectarianism to be drawn, 
or of race. Be especially careful to give adequate 
representation to a-U political parties, that it may-be 
recognized as a strictly non-partisan affair. 

Appropriate decorations have eloquent part in a 
sensible Fourth of July. In some public way ask that 
all stores and houses be decorated at least by the hang- 
ing out of one flag. The platform for the speakers 
should be gorgeous with red, white, and blue, bril- 
liant with the season's flowers, and suggestive with 
a map of the United States and pictures of the capitol 
at Washington and some of our great men. Obtain 
little flag badges for every one, if possible. If you 
have no liberty pole in your town, what better time 
than this to raise one, with appropriate ceremonies, 
triumphantly hauling to the top as fine a flag as the 
town can afford ? 

A procession is another fitting scenic feature, and 
one of especial value because of the number it inter- 
ests in your plans for the day. The boys will like to 



76 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

organize in companies bearing banners, American 
shields, the State seal, and other fitting emblems. 
Drum corps and brass bands will be available. Sym- 
bolic floats are not impossible. At least you may 
mount Uncle Sam on one cart and Columbia in an- 
other, and fill a third with thirteen maidens grouped 
to represent the original thirteen States and singing 
patriotic songs. The Grand Army post, the Sons of 
Veterans, and many another organization will be glad 
to join the parade, and there will be room also for 
bicycle clubs and other social groups, to say nothing 
of the Sunday schools and Christian Endeavor socie- 
ties, that will after all furnish the backbone of the 
procession. 

Do not think that because you are seeking to re- 
form the observance of the Fourth of July, therefore 
you must be so dignified as to drive away all the fun. 
A jolly series of out-of-door contests may be planned 
and carried out, and the address at the close of them, 
which will be all the more enjoyed because of them, 
will point out the connection between strong bodies 
and the service of our country, and show how a good 
citizen must keep his body pure and active. Amateur 
bicycle races and foot races, leaping contests, throw- 
ing the hammer, casting the discus, archery, — con- 
tests in sports of all kinds which can be witnessed by 
large companies of people, would aid the celebration 
greatly. Suitable prizes might be oflTered to stimu- 
late these — prizes such as a silk flag, a bust of Lin- 
coln, a fine portrait of Washington, a good history 
of the nation. 



CITIZENS IN TRAININC;. 77 

It may be best — certainly, if both your physical 
and literary exercises are brief — to have them all in 
the afternoon. This arrangement will dispense with 
any picnic features, and greatly simplify the whole 
affair, making it possible for many to enjoy the cele- 
bration that might not take the trouble to pack up 
lunch and go off to some distant picnic grounds. 

But you must be sure to provide for maintaining 
the interest indoors in case it rains. For this reason 
it will be best to obtain the use of a hall for the 
speech-making. 

You will have programmes printed as nicely as you 
can — possibly in red and blue ink on white paper. 
Give on this programme a full list of the athletic 
contests, with the names of all the participants. Get 
Uncle Sam in traditional costume, or some beautiful 
girl dressed as Columbia, to preside over these exer- 
cises in the hall. 

The musical part of the programme should be 
packed full of interest. Organize as large a chorus 
as you can. Open with a patriotic song service led 
by this chorus, the words being placed on the pro- 
grammes. Introduce one song by the very little tots, 
and another song by the men alone. The little folks 
may also be given Scripture verses to be repeated 
in concert ; the older children may give a few brief 
patriotic recitations. A flag drill, performed on the 
stage by a group of graceful girls, would please every- 
body. 

By all means have the Declaration of Independence 
read, and read, too, by the very best reader in the 



78 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

community. You might add, also, a brief selection 
from the writings of Washington or of Lincoln. 

Apportion the religious exercises among the clergy- 
men of all faiths. Especially fitting would be a series 
of very brief prayers from all the- ministers in town, 
one following the other. 

As to the orator, make no mistake. Appoint no 
one merely out of compliment or curiosity. Far bet- 
ter have no oration at all than have one that bores 
the people and tires them. If you can't obtain a 
speaker of ability, one you can trust to interest and 
delight as well as instruct, you will do almost as well 
by enlisting in the service a few speakers of less abil- 
ity. Insisting on brevity, get them to speak in swift 
succession on a group of related themes. The variety 
you thus obtain will hold people's attention. A most 
inspiring series of five-minute talks, for instance, 
might be entitled, " A Five-minute Lesson from 
Washington," *'From Jefferson," "From Samuel 
Adams," *' From Lincoln," '* From Garfield." In- 
struct each speaker merely to tell a single anecdote 
and draw one lesson from it. Another suitable series 
of talks would be: **Our county: how big? How 
great ? How loved ? How served ? " Still others 
are: *' Our country's foes: strong drink; municipal 
misrule ; love of money " ; *' Our national foundation 
stones : the public school ; the church ; the press ; 
our homes." The last series would gain in effective- 
ness if each speaker carried out with him a great 
pasteboard cube painted to represent stone, and 
marked with the theme on which he was to speak. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 79 

Close such a meeting with a salute of the flag. 
The audience is asked to rise, and their attention is 
called to a placard bearing in plain letters these 
words: *' I pledge allegiance to my flag, and to the 
country for which it stands — one nation indivisible, 
with liberty and justice for all." They are asked to 
raise their right hands, and when a flag is unfurled as 
a signal, they will repeat those words in concert, thus 
closing the exercises in a most impressive way. 

If you wish to end the day in the orthodox fashion 
with fireworks, you can greatly improve on the ordi- 
nary method by a little co-operation. Simply appoint 
a committee which will request all house-holders to 
hand to it the money they would otherwise spend for 
fireworks, that it may be placed in a common fund. 
A really magnificent display may thus be bought, and, 
being set off by experienced hands in a suitable place, 
it can be seen without danger by all. And thus will 
close in a burst of glory your model Fourth of July. 



8o CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE CITIZEN REACHING DOWN. 

Christian Endeavor in Prison. A most remarkable 
work is being accomplished by Christian Endeavor in 
our State prisons and county and city jails, although 
only a few societies thus far are laboring in this impor- 
tant field. Certainly when we remember what a men- 
ace to our nation is its criminal class, we shall decide 
that no better Christian-citizenship task is possible for 
us than to seek the reformation of the prisoners. This 
is a missionary work right at our doors, and the re- 
wards that come from it are many and glorious. 

Blessed results have been accomplished by the 
Christian Endeavor societies among the prisoners in 
the New York State prison at Albany, in the State 
prisons of Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ne- 
vada. Chaplains are most earnest in their praise of 
this instrumentality, and wardens say that their pris- 
ons are different places since the advent of Christian 
Endeavor. Not a few most hopeful conversions have 
already sprung from this work, conversions that 
have proved themselves by consecrated lives after re- 
lease from prison. In some cases already missionary 
workers and preachers of the gospel have come from 
prison Christian Endeavor societies. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 51 

But the field is as yet scarcely touched, especially 
the field of the common jails, where the work is dif- 
ferent, to be sure, but equally necessary and blessed. 
Separate societies may undertake the work, but, if a 
local union exists, much force will be gained by pla- 
cing the matter under union auspices. 

First talk with the chaplain. Explain to kim what 
Christian Endeavor is, if he does n't know. Get his 
cordial sympathy, permission, and co-operation. You 
can do little without him. Together with him go to 
the warden and interest him in the plan. 

Then, before you attempt any public meeting, visit 
with the men as much as possible in private. Get 
your best workers, the big-hearted, tactful, wise 
young men and women, to make friends with the 
prisoners, leave good literature with them, especially 
bright Christian Endeavor literature, and, if the way 
opens, to pray with them. 

Do not attempt to form a Christian Endeavor so- 
ciety until you have held some meetings with the 
prisoners. Bring a band of sweet-voiced Endeavorers 
to the regular religious exercises of the prison, and 
let them sing their best. Follow this with a short 
talk, as brisk and cheery and as full of our Christian 
Endeavor sunshine as you can get it. Keep this up 
for a few weeks until the prisoners know you for their 
friends, and look forward with eagerness to your 
coming. 

In the meantime you will have learned who are 
the more promising among the prisoners, and you 
will have explained the Christian Endeavor society to 



82 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

them, or refreshed and corrected their previous knowl- 
edge of it. It is now time, in conjunction with the 
chaplain, to form your society. Begin with a very 
few, if necessary, but with none that do not under- 
stand and mean what they are doing. You cannot 
make your rules too strict. Dismission from the 
society should immediately follow failure to live up 
to the pledge. Prison discipline is stern, and 
Christian discipline must not appear in any way 
lax. 

As for the rest, their meetings will run much as 
meetings outside the stone walls. Indeed, the more 
they can be brought in touch with outside Endeavor- 
ers, the better for them ; and the better, usually, for 
the outside Endeavorers. Visit their society often. 
Pray witli them, and, in your own societies, pray for 
them. Remember what a terrible struggle they have 
entered upon, and how sorely they need all the aid 
their Christian friends can give them. Write them 
letters often and get distant Endeavorers to send 
them letters, to be read to their society, and make 
them feel less isolated and alone. Especially re- 
member them at the holiday seasons, and make them 
times of genuine spiritual joy and upHft to them. 
And, above all, whenever one of these prison En- 
deavorers goes out into the world again, surround 
him wdth all the safeguards that consecrated Chris- 
tian ingenuity and warm brotherly love can suggest, 
and do all in your power to keep him firm amid the 
thousands of temptations and discouragements that 
will at once beset him. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. S^ 

If by this prison work you succeed in rescuing only 
a few from the bonds of the evil one, and in making 
them good citizens and loyal Christians, what a mag- 
nificent work for Christian citizenship you will have 
accomplished ! 

Ice -Water Tanks. Many men are habitually 
thirsty, and in warm weather, especially, their thirst 
becomes a fierce passion. Who is there of us, for 
that matter, that has not at times^ with much ex- 
aggeration to be sure, and yet with genuine feeling, 
exclaimed, "I am half dead with thirst" ? Now in 
most of our cities there is no place where a thirsty 
man can get a good drink for nothing, and with the 
exception of the soda-water fountains, whose useful- 
ness in the temperance cause is not recognized as it 
should be, there is no place save the saloons where 
he can get a drink for money. 

A very practical and effective temperance measure, 
therefore, and one easily within the possibilities of all 
our city unions, is the establishing of ice-water tanks 
on street corners where many men pass. For some 
time this plan has been carried out by the Cleveland 
Endeavorers and those in St. Paul, and with well- 
marked results. Saloons in the neighborhood of these 
cold-water missionaries have felt their competition. 

The cost of the work is easily figured up. It de- 
pends, of course, upon the cost of ice and water in 
your city. The Endeavorers themselves should be 
willing to do the work connected with the tanks. 

Possibly the best plan is this. Take a large 
wooden cask and place inside it a coil of pipe, 



84 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

which is put in direct connection with the city water 
supply, so that fresh water enters automatically as 
the drinkers draw it off. In the centre of this coil of 
pipe the ice is placed. An arrangement with the ice- 
men can be made so that they will see that the ice 
supply is kept up. Paint upon the cask the name of 
the union, and a hearty invitation to partake. The 
different societies will like to divide this work among 
them, each paying for its own cask, which will bear 
the name of that particular society. 

In Lounging Places. The spots where men have 
leisure to read and where they meet in large numbers 
afford magnificent seed ground for Christian-citizen- 
ship work. To furnish good literature, and especially 
literature bearing on the duties of a citizen, to such 
places as our railroad stations, is a very obvious duty 
of those at work for better citizenship. The barber 
shops are usually provided with the lightest of flimsy 
literature, the engine houses of the fire department, 
the corridors of the hotels, the post-ofiices where men 
wait for mail — there are many such places that are 
open for seed-sowing. Some Endeavorers have even 
fixed boxes, protected from the water, on the backs of 
the seats in the parks, and filled them with good 
reading matter. The Endeavorers themselves may 
easily be induced to furnish from their homes just 
what is wanted in the way of papers and magazines. 
Do not permit anything dull to get into these boxes 
or upon the Christian Endeavor tables. Every piece 
of literature must be good, but none goody-goody. 
Keep the tables well up to date. Insert now and 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 85 

then some manly tract on the responsibihty of a citi- 
zen, or on some specific phase of reform. Watch for 
results, and you will see them. 

Potato Farms. Potato farms, or *' Pingree patch- 
es,'' as they are named from the governor of Michi- 
gan, who originated this form of charity, afford a very 
sensible mode of relief for the poor, especially in 
cities. A Christian Endeavor society that wishes to 
start this plan, will seek out the owners of unoccupied 
land, land held for building, and will get as many of 
them as possible to permit this land to be planted in 
vegetables such as potatoes. It will next be neces- 
sary to obtain a fund for the purchase of tools and 
seeds. You may persuade some benevolent farmers 
to do the ploughing for nothing. Finally, make wide 
advertisement of the plan, and induce the poor to try 
it, each taking a portion of the ground and cultivat- 
ing it for his own use. You will need to obtain the 
services of some one wise in practical agriculture, to 
direct these amateur farmers. 

The plan, it will be seen, cannot be carried out 
without much work, but it is well worth carrying out, 
because it is teaching the poor to help themselves, 
and that is the best of all charities. In many towns 
and cities this method has been tried, and it has 
met with uniform success. It has preserved the self- 
respect of thousands of men, and has kept thousands 
of families from starvation or from becoming public 
charges. Full information concerning this important 
work may be obtained from the New York Society 
for Improving the Condition of the Poor. 



86 CITIZENS IX TRAINING. 



CHAPTER X. 

FOR SABBATH OBSERVANCE. 

Of course the first and best way to promote a 
better observance of the Lord's day is for the En- 
deavorers to keep it holy themselves, and the Chris- 
tian-citizenship committee must begin at home. At 
some meeting especially devoted to the subject the 
matter should be set before the society with frank- 
ness and firmness. Talk about Sunday studying for 
Monday's lessons, about the Sunday newspapers and 
the reading of other secular literature on the Lord's 
day, about Sunday letter-writing, Sunday bicycle- 
riding and carriage-riding and boating. 

But you will waste your time if you merely indulge 
in these negatives and do not go on to show what 
kind of reading makes a blessed Sabbath, what kind 
of exercise is permissible upon the Lord's day, how 
far the day may be made one of social enjoyment, 
and what occupations will fill it with the true spirit 
of rest and recreation. Especially, make a plea for 
more and better family life on Sunday. Our strenu- 
ous living, each bent as for life upon his own task, 
keeps us far apart on week-days, but Sunday should 
be the day of reunion. 

You might hold a symposium on the subject, ** The 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 87 

happiest Sunday I ever spent." A Sunday question- 
box would make another valuable feature of such a 
meeting. Ask the Endeavorers to come with ques- 
tions written out bearing upon Sabbath observance, 

— any difficulties they may wish solved for them- 
selves or others. Put your wisest and readiest man in 
charge of this question-box. Let the evening some- 
where contain an account — from books or from the 
lips of some traveller — of Sunday as it is observed 

— or, rather, not observed — on the continent of 
Europe. Show the Endeavorers some of the evils 
that have already come upon those nations from this 
failure to keep God's law of rest and worship. At 
the close of the evening, the society members may 
be asked to give some expression of their decisions 
in the matter. This may take the form of a resolu- 
tion and a vote, of a pledge by uplifted hands, or of 
signatures to a formal printed pledge, — whichever 
your pastor may think wise. 

Then, outside the society much work may be done 
for the purification of the Sabbath. The post-offices 
may be kept open on that day, — an entirely needless 
profanation of its holy hours. A petition signed by 
a majority of the town's people and sent to the post- 
master general at Washington, would probably result 
in the closing of the office on Sunday; I say *' prob- 
ably," because, in the absence of law on the subject, 
so much depends on the temper of the authorities. 
A concerted action among the patrons of barber shops 
and meat markets might result in their closing their 
doors on the Lord's day. An arrangement might be 



55 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

made whereby the drugstores of the place should al- 
ternate in keeping open on Sunday. If Sunday papers 
are largely taken, much good might be done by in- 
troducing newspapers — if good ones are. accessible 
— that do not print Sunday editions, and persuading 
the church-members, at least, to subscribe for them. 
About obtaining the enforcement of laws regarding 
the Sabbath, I have spoken elsewhere. 

Enforcing Temperance and Sunday Laws. What 
is said under this head will apply as well, of course, 
to the enforcement of any law pertaining to the 
morals of the community. I can speak only in gen- 
eral terms, so much depends on the form of govern- 
ment under which you live ; whether, for instance, 
you are in a large city or a small village. In any 
event, if the laws are not enforced, and the older 
Christians will not take the matter up, there is every 
reason why the younger Christians should do what 
they can to improve the disgraceful state of affairs. 

First, move on the men whose business it is to 
enforce the law. It leads only to mischief when, with 
whatever good intentions, a body of citizens set them- 
selves to do the work that should be done by officers 
elected for that purpose. Go first to the lowest 
officer whose duty it is to move in the matter. It 
may be a policeman or the town marshal or the con- 
stable. Point out the law and respectfully ask him 
to enforce it. If no results follow, pass to the next 
highest officer. In a small Western city — many of 
these cities contain only two or three thousand per- 
sons — this will be the mayor. In a large city it will 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 89 

be some police sergeant or the chief of police. Set 
before him the facts and state what you have already 
done. If need be, keep on, passing to the police 
commissioner, the mayor, if it is a large city, or the 
prosecuting attorney of the city or county or even of 
the State. 

Of course this takes for granted that you know the 
law thoroughly, and that you are advised by good 
lawyers at every step. Never go alone to any of 
these officers, — at least for a final visit, — but get 
their decisive word in the presence of as many wit- 
nesses as you can draw together. If you can inter- 
est in the case some influential citizen, obtain him 
for your spokesman. Do not seek to appear in the 
matter at all, but seek rather the success of your 
cause. 

If the officials are obdurate, sneering, and abusive, 
— as in the case of a long-standing tolerance of in- 
iquity may well be the fact, — seek publicity for your 
plea. Go into the papers with vigorous articles. 
Get the laws in question printed on broadsides, and 
post them up everywhere with introductory appeals. 
Get the ministers to preach on the subject. Hold an 
indignation meeting and pass condemnatory resolu- 
tions. Obtain signatures to a paper emphatically, 
calling upon the authorities for the enforcement of 
the law. 

If the authorities, as likely, plead ignorance of the 
violation of the law and call for evidence, get it in 
abundance. You may need to hire detectives, but 
probably not. Combine with a large number in gath- 



go CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

ering this evidence, so that your opponents may see 
that persecution is futile. You may need to be sworn 
in as special police. Never attempt arrests ; that is 
not your business. Never carry revolvers; they will 
get you into more trouble than they save you from. 
Make your evidence as circumstantial as possible. 
Let a lawyer pass upon ft before you rely on it. When 
you have obtained it all, present it to the proper au- 
thorities. If they do not heed it, put it into print, 
and present it to the people back of the authorities, 
and you will get a hearing. 

The trouble may be that there is no ordinance cov- 
ering the ground, or that the ground is inadequately 
covered by the laws already passed. If so, agitate 
for better laws. Get the best men available to draw 
up the law for you. Hold a mass meeting to discuss 
it and win friends for it. Print it in the papers. Get 
signatures to a petition embodying it. Having thus 
made all the friends for the ordinance you can, inform 
the council that you wish, at some convenient meet- 
ing, to present a petition in person, and request them 
to set a time for a hearing, which they will hardly re- 
fuse. Get as many strong men as you can to go with 
you to this hearing. Obtain some forcible speakers 
to urge the claims of the law upon your city law- 
makers. Much will depend upon the array of influ- 
ence you can thus focus upon the petition. When 
action is taken upon the matter, note with care who 
votes against it, and enter into an active campaign 
against them, if they are renominated. Do not be 
discouraged if your first efforts meet with absolute 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 9 1 

failure. You will have done much if you do nothing 
but arouse public sentiment. Never give up till you 
conquer. 

And then — a most necessary caution — after vic- 
tory, ceaseless vigilance, which alone, in all matters 
of moral reform, is the price of continued victory. 



92 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 



CHAPTER XI. 

SOME CHRISTIAN-CITIZENSHIP CRUSADES. 

Humane Work. Where men and women, boys 
and girls, are cruel to the brutes, they are almost cer- 
tain to be cruel to one another, coarse in their feel- 
ings, and brutal in their conduct. Whatever can be 
done, with the young especially, to make them more 
gentle toward these helpless wards of man will hasten 
the day when lynch law will disappear, and prize 
fights be forgotten, and war itself be no more. 

If you will write to the American Society for th-e 
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (New York), they 
will send you full instructions for the formation of 
Bands of Mercy among the young. These organiza- 
tions may be made helpful adjuncts to the Junior so- 
ciety. In most cases, it will probably be better to 
avoid multiplying organizations, and simply form a 
*' humane committee" or a '* Band of Mercy com- 
mittee," whose work it will be to hold occasional 
meetings in the interests of the dumb animals, and 
to present often, at the regular meeting, interesting 
items concerning animals and how they should be 
treated. 

Among their elders also there is room for work. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 93 

Who with any kindness of heart has not longed to be 
clothed with police power when seeing a horse cruelly 
beaten because it could not pull a load much too 
heavy for it ? or when seeing some dog or cat aban- 
doned to starvation ? In every community there 
should be laws requiring proper treatment of domes- 
tic animals, and these laws the Endeavorers can get 
passed. An occasional letter to the papers describ- 
ing some particular case of neglect will do good. The 
town government may be persuaded to give the pow- 
ers of deputy or special policeman for this purpose to 
men of character and intelligence that desire to put 
a stop by immediate action — which alone, in many 
cases, is of any use — to the shocking brutality of 
some drivers and owners of animals. 

Anti-cigarette Leagues. The establishment of 
anti-cigarette leagues among the boys of our public 
schools, starting, I believe, in New York City, has 
now spread so widely that nearly all large cities have 
tried the beneficent plan. There is a simple pledge 
of abstinence from cigarette-smoking, a button or 
other badge of membership, and an occasional meet- 
ing to discuss the evils of cigarette-smoking and to 
arouse interest on the part of those that are not yet 
members. The boys themselves, once the league is 
started, make vigorous canvassers for it. They de- 
light in ** belonging,"" and soon come to consider it 
more manly to refrain from smoking than before they 
thought it to smoke. Cigarette-smoking is becom- 
ing so serious an evil and threatens to w^ork so great 
mischief among our future citizens, that the establish- 



94 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

ment of such leagues as this among the school-boys is 
magnificent work for Christian citizenship. It must 
be done with the aid of the school supermtendent and 
teachers, and the young men of the societies are the 
ones to present the matter to the boys, and to join 
the league with them. 

Good Roads. I urge all Christian-citizenship com- 
mittees to take an interest in the question of better 
roads. Notwithstanding all that has been written 
and said of late years on this important subject, there 
yet remains much popular ignorance of the value 
of good roads, and the injury to the community, not 
only as regards their worldly prosperity but as to 
their higher interests, from roads that are poorly 
constructed and lazily maintained. Where the roads 
are long sloughs, the isolation of the people leads 
to stagnation. All kinds of religious interests suffer. 
Social gatherings are made difficult. The people 
cannot get to church, nor the children to school. The 
cost of marketing being increased,, they have less 
money for good purposes. And all this without men- 
tion of the great gain that comes from the very sight 
of neat highways thriftily kept up. 

It will be worth while for the Christian-citizenship 
committee to study the right ways of making roads, 
and successful plans for paying for their construction 
and maintenance. A lecture on road-making may 
be obtained, illustrated with magic-lantern pictures of 
good roads, bad roads, and processes of construction. 
All the town may be invited in to listen. The young 
■ folks and their ideas will be laughed at by many, but 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 95 

if you can procure the building of a single sample bit 
of road according to the proper fashion, the sneers 
will soon change to approval, and farmers and mer- 
chants and bicycle-riders and pedestrians, pleasure 
drivers and those that propel baby carriages, will 
unite to call you blessed ! 

Indecent Posters. In many cities most disgrace- 
ful posters are permitted upon the bill-boards, espe- 
cially those that advertise theatrical performances. 
If there is a law against such things, the Christian 
Endeavorers can see that it is enforced. Experience 
has shown how it may be done. Appeal to the chief 
of police. That failing, appeal to the district attor- 
ney or the mayor. Write to the papers. Urge the 
ministers to preach sermons directed against the evil. 
You will not go far in this course before the objec- 
tionable posters will come down. 

Of course, if you have no law to which you can ap- 
peal, you must first agitate for one, using the meth- 
ods for that purpose elsewhere described. The evil 
of these posters is so positive, so glaring, so insidi- 
ows and deadly, that to eradicate it is well worth a 
long fight and much self-sacrifice. 

No Sunday Bicycling. The use of the bicycle on 
the Lord's day for purposes of mere pleasure has se- 
riously threatened the Sabbath, and the preservation 
of a day of rest and worship is so important for pub- 
lic welfare that any Christian-citizenship committee 
is thoroughly justified in becoming also a committee 
to regulate the use of the bicycle on Sunday. One 
of the best ways to agitate the matter, and at the same 



96 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

time crystallize results, is the formation of a No-Sun- 
day-Bicycle League. The members of this league 
sign a pledge promising not to use their wheels on 
the Lord's day for mere recreation. The pledge 
might read: " Believing that God's law, written not 
only in his Book but in the constitution of our bodies 
and the needs of society, requires the observance of 
one day in seven as a day of rest and worship, I 
hereby promise to make no use of my bicycle on Sun- 
day, except in case of necessity or when about the 
King's business/' Members of this league might 
wear some distinctive ribbon upon their wheels, bear- 
ing some such motto as •' Member of the No-Sun- 
day-Bicycle League. One day in seven for rest and 
worship.'' 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 97 



CHAPTER XII. 

A BUDGET OF PLANS AND SUGGESTIONS. 

Work with the Pastors. There is no danger in 
suggesting to young people this work for better citi- 
zenship, if they will seek the guidance of older heads ; 
but unless they do this, there is danger that the Chris- 
tian Endeavor union and the cause of the movement 
at large may be brought into disrepute by the zeal, 
not according to knowledge, of some hot-head who 
may wish the union to indorse some particular candi- 
date or political party, or embark the Endeavorers in 
some visionary scheme, all with the best purposes in 
the world. No step along the lines laid out in this 
book should be taken without the full co-operation 
and consent of the pastors of the churches involved. 
They are the natural and proper guides of the Chris- 
tian Endeavor societies in all their undertakings, and 
wherever there is the slightest possibility of a mis- 
understanding, they should be consulted. 

For this and similar objects every Christian En- 
deavor union should organize a pastors' advisory 
board — a body of pastors fairly representing all de- 
nominations, to whom the union officers can go when- 
ever they are, or should be, in doubt. This advisory 



98 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

board may be made up by appointment from the va- 
rious denominational ministers' meetings of the city, 
or, if the town is a small one, it may consist of all 
the ministers in the place. To avoid confusion, its 
members should serve for long periods or for life. 
If the pastors are given an earnest invitation to form 
such a board and are not willing, they will have no 
right to criticise the Christian Endeavor union for 
acts which their wiser counsel would have prevented. 
This plan has been tried in some unions already. 
The pastors enter into it with heartiness, and the 
results are altogether good. 

Calling for Sermons. It has become quite a fash- 
ion for reform organizations to call upon the pastors, 
or urge the Endeavorers to call upon the pastors, for 
sermons on a certain Sunday upon some needed re- 
form. I sometimes suspect that if pastors should 
heed all such appeals they would have no opportunity 
at all to preach upon their own topics. Our Endeav- 
orers should so seldom make requests of this kind 
that they will mean something when they come. And 
never make them without some guarantee of attend- 
ance and a decided effort to get others to come. Do 
not fix a time for the sermon, but present to your 
pastor a cordially worded invitation to preach the 
sermon, signed by all the members of the society, 
and let this invitation ask that the society may be 
notified of the day when the sermon will be preached, 
because they wish not only to be sure to be there 
themselves, but to invite all their friends. That will 
be an invitation the pastor will be glad to get. 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 99 

Patriotic Songs. Our nation is not rich in patri- 
otic songs. All the more disgraceful is it that so few 
of us should know well the few songs we have. Start 
'* The Star-Spangled Banner " in any company, and 
note how many voices fall off after the first stanza. 
It is quite as bad with other national songs, and even 
** America'' we are not all sure of. The Christian- 
citizenship committee will do well to make a collec- 
tion of patriotic hymns and songs, copying them on 
some duplicator, and drilling the society in them 
on all proper occasions till every Endeavorer knows 
them and can sing them with his eyes shut. 

The Use of Flags. Every citizen should own a 
good, large, American flag ; but alas ! there are many 
American homes, I fear, that could not muster even 
a little one. It is an excellent custom not only to 
decorate our houses with national emblems on the 
great patriotic holidays, but also to keep the flag on 
view in some living room all the time. This custom 
the Christian Endeavor society may recommend to 
others and adopt themselves. By getting the flags in 
quantity, they may obtain them much more cheaply. 

I have spoken elsewhere about the custom of rais- 
ing the flag over the school-house. It should fly also 
over all public buildings, especially over the post- 
office, the city hall, the building where your town 
council meets, — every building of the kind. If your 
community has not yet awaked to the importance of 
this silent display of patriotism, let your society raise 
the money and buy a few flags for presentation to the 
town. The occasion of the presentation and flag- 



lOO CITIZENS IX TRAINING. 

raising may be made fruitful in the interests of better 
citizenship. 

Village Improvement Societies. In many a small 
town a village improvement society would put new 
life into the place, and the zeal for the public good 
aroused by its undertakings would go on to larger 
matters. There is no reason why Endeavorers should 
not lead in the formation of such a society. The steps 
are simple. First talk the matter over quietly with a 
few leading citizens and make sure of their co-opera- 
tion. Get together a small company of men — it 
would be a question to be decided in each community 
for itself whether women should be admitted — and 
fix upon the next step in consultation with them. 
Probably you will next issue a general call, stating the 
object of the proposed society, and asking all that 
would like to join to meet at a certain place and time, 
to form a constitution and elect officers. This call 
could be sent out through the papers or by posters. 
You should have a simple constitution ready to sub- 
mit, in order to save time. 

What a village improvement society may do de- 
pends of course on the condition of the village. The 
streets may need bettering. Tree-planting may be 
in order. You may have no names on the street 
corners. The town bulletin boards may well be re- 
placed by larger and neater ones. Rubbish in the 
streets and in the back-yards may disfigure the town. 
A campaign for the removal of fences may add to the 
town's attractiveness. The character of the town 
paper may be improved. The surroundings of the 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. lOI 

railroad station, by which so many form their opinion 
of the place, may be very disagreeable. 

You may take up larger matters, such as the possi- 
ble building of an electric street railway, better street 
lighting, better protection from fire, the introduction 
of water works and gas, the drawing to the town of 
new manufacturing enterprises. 

Nor will a village improvement society hold its 
hands from the moral problems of the town. For the 
safety of the children, it may press upon the town 
council the adoption of a curfew law. It may decide 
that the town has too many saloons, and initiate a 
temperance crusade. If any company of earnest men 
consider for some time the improvement of their 
community, they can hardly fail to see that the great- 
est possible improvement is an improvement in the 
character of its inhabitants. In many ways, then, 
our Christian Endeavor societies would be doing true 
work for Christian citizenship, if they should set them- 
selves to the founding of village improvement societies. 

Debates and Lyceums. The day of the old-fash- 
ioned lyceum has gone by ; but Christian Endeavor 
can bring it back again, and it would be a genuine 
service to the world to do so. The public debating 
of public questions and discussion more or less formal 
of public events — the principle of the New England 
town meeting — is something we dare not relegate to 
our newspapers. We young people should train our- 
selves to public debate. There is much in the clash 
of speech and the friction of opposing antagonists for 
the loss of which type can never compensate. 



I02 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

A splendid thing for a Christian-citizenship com- 
mittee to' do, therefore, is to organize a current-topic 
class ; or, if you wish, let it be a regular lyceum of 
the old, stalwart tj'pe. Get a leader, if you can, — 
some man well versed in history, especially in modern 
history ; a man that can fill out for you the brief for- 
eign items in the papers, tell you more about men 
and movements, and interpret to you what is going 
on in the world. Every meeting might open with a 
talk by your leader, followed, of ccTurse, by a brisk 
questioning, first by the class and then by him. 

But if you have no such capable leader, neverthe- 
less you can carry on a current-topic class most effec- 
tively. Gather together as many earnest, wide-awake 
young people as you can — young women as well as 
young men, for the young women read the newspapers 
nowadays, and why should they not? Divide up the 
world among yourselves. If there are only five of 
you, give each a grand division. You may have 
enough to take a nation apiece, China to one, France 
to another, Madagascar to a third. What you have 
thus done for the world at large, repeat for your own 
country, giving each a section — the East, the -cen- 
tral States, the mountain States, etc., if you are few; 
giving each a single State, if you are sufficiently 
numerous. 

This division having been made, each member is 
expected as soon as possible to make himself an au- 
thority in his field, both home and abroad. What- 
ever of interest happens there, he will report. Any 
questions the club may ask him about his field, he 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. IO3 

will be expected to answer. He will be called upon 
occasionally for a talk on recent events in his field, 
and always, whenever the eyes of the world are 
turned upon it, the eyes of the club will be turned 
upon him. 

If at any time the interest in any direction becomes 
intense enough to warrant it, several may be trans- 
ferred to that field. In the case of our war with 
Spain, for instance, the entire club might be set to 
study it and report on it, one taking in charge the 
matter of volunteers, another the militia, a" third 
Spain, a fourth the other nations of Europe with 
reference to the war, a fifth our navy, a sixth the 
Philippines, etc. 

Some part of each meeting should be set apart for 
words from each reporter, whether anything of espe- 
cial interest is going on in his country or not. Occa- 
sipnally, longer papers and talks should be required 
from all the members. For the sake of thorough- 
ness, each should be kept in one field till he has 
become somewhat familiar with it ; but, for the sake 
of gaining wide views, there should be a regular sys- 
tem of transference from one country to another. A 
current-topic class such as this, with frequent debates 
and discussions, cannot fail to be of the very greatest 
interest, and to train its members at the same time 
for better citizenship. 

The Post-office Referendum. Some day our peo- 
ple will put themselves in as close touch with their 
legislators as the people of Switzerland, who, by the 
processes of the initiative and the referendum, can 



I04 CITIZENS IN TRAINING. 

themselves propose laws or require their reference to 
themselves. Till that day comes, the free use of 
Uncle Sam^s mails is the next best mode of influen- 
cing legislation, and of letting our representatives 
know what sort of opinions they are to represent. 
The Christian-citizenship committee will do a grand 
thing, if it teaches the En^deavorers, especially the 
voters among them, to write to their State and na- 
tional representatives whenever they have any special 
desire for certain action on their part. 

To this end the committee should have a list of 
names and addresses of all these statesmen, and 
should learn just the proper form of address for each, 
— which is simply : ** To the Honorable John Smith, 
Massachusetts House of Representatives, Boston," or, 
*' Ohio State Senate, Columbus, Ohio," or, " House 
of Representatives, Washington," or, ** United States 
Senate, Washington." 

One very important point to note in this patriotic 
work is this, that not all the letters should be fault- 
finding. When you approve of the stand taken by 
your representative, w^ien he has made an eloquent 
speech whose sentiments you indorse, when he has 
cast a brave vote for the right under trying circum- 
stances, why not write and thank him for it ? Such 
words of praise will be more effective in influencing 
good legislation than words of blame when we think 
the course taken has been a wrong one, though such 
words, too, should sometimes be spoken. 

One other caution : whenever you urge the writing 
to leo^islators, uro^e the most careful attention to the 



CITIZENS IN TRAINING. I05 

composition, the penmanship (better get everything 
typewritten), the spelling, and all such matters. The 
post-office referendum will speedily fall into discredit 
and lose all its power for good, if it is used more by 
ignorant or careless persons than by the cultivated . 
and thoughtful. I suspect that there is an opinion 
among legislators that it is chiefly the '* cranks " that 
write to them. We shall be doing a grand work if 
we change completely the character of their corre- 
spondence. 

And a final point : remember that your representa- 
tives are very busy men, and do not expect a reply. 
Expressly say in each letter that you do not expect a 
reply, but that your letter is merely to let him know 
how one of his constituents feels on the subject. Be 
brief, pointed, courteous, and intelligent, and your 
communications will be received with respect and will 
not fail of result. 



JUL Jai. ibyb 



